


Queens

by Cobray



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-13 01:17:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 82,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3362390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cobray/pseuds/Cobray
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[Modern AU, non-related Elsanna] Anna Summerford, the newest and youngest member of the US congress, is trying to keep her head above the water and her soul reasonably clean. Elsa Arendelle is the newest and youngest queen of her nation, trying to steer her little country through the world and keep her confidence intact. Their accidental meeting will change their lives forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dancing Lights

America was beautiful from the air.

She had always thought so.

When Anna had been a child and the family business had taken them out of state she had always demanded a window-seat. Other children would sleep or cry or twiddle their thumbs across a black plastic gadget, but little Anna spent her time aloft staring out of the window over whatever they had passed over, and been enraptured no matter what. Whether it had been endless rolling fields of golden grain, or manufacturing houses that covered hundreds of meters, or a city that sparkled with a million lights, she had looked out of the small glass portal open-mouthed at her country, and wished she could be down there exploring every inch of those wonders. When they would touch down to smiling men in limousines Anna would need to be corralled, else she would slip away from her mother's grasp and try to run off and find the fascinating and magical places she had seen from the air.

Then she had grown up, and although the intense desire to explore had faded slightly her sense of beauty of the whole thing never had. Like most of her class at eighteen she had taken a year out to 'find herself', but instead of following her friends and classmates to the beaches of Florida to work on her tan or to the endless amusements and baubles of Vegas, or even to the more exotic but well-regulated trips abroad to some well-policed less fortunate country to build a school (and her CV), she had went a different path. She had loaded a backpack and a winter coat and a pair of solid shoes, and taken a Greyhound bus to the first place she had seen.

She hadn't managed to get around to every state, but she had come damn close.

When she had returned home it had been ten pounds thinner, a couple of shades darker, and with eyes that shined. She got back to her fighting weight fast enough, and the skin went back to her normal pallor just as quick – Summerfords never did tan well or for long – but the light in her green-blue eyes never faded. She had talked endlessly, and not about the boys she had met or the landmarks she'd stood at. She had talked about understaffed food-kitchens and free clinics. About schools so desperate they'd take on substitute teachers with CVs as clean and empty as tablecloths. About looking out of parties in penthouses her name had gotten her into, and looking down at the streets to see the graffiti and broken windows mere blocks away.

Her parents had waited a week before suggesting the internship for the local city council.

The rest had seemed foreordained.

"Congresswoman?"

"Hmmm?" Anna said, tearing her eyes away from the sparkling vista below only with great difficulty to see her chief of staff looking at her politely. "Yes Kai?"

"We'll be coming in for a landing soon. Do you need a copy of your statement?"

"Urgh." Landing meant being on the ground, and being on the ground meant not being able to _see_. It meant her vision was limited to what was around her, not the view of an eagle on high.

It also meant phones that worked, which meant phone-calls. It meant people around her, which meant mingling without accomplishing anything. It meant journalists, which meant- Wait a second. "My _statement?_ "

"The media are already waiting for-"

She sighed in exasperation and threw her head back against the chair's upholstery. At least this particular flight had no other passengers to see her make a most un-statesmanlike expression. "Oh for the love of…who cares about _me?_ Isn't old man Stone meant to be drawing them away?"

"The _senior_ congressman – mark that word Anna Summerford, it means _more important than –_ has already arrived and given his speech."

"How was it?"

"Much like the man himself it was full of the gravitas of his office," Kai said with practised diplomacy. "A solemn and serious occasion."

"So he droned on for half an hour and everyone was bored to tears." The old joke was that Richard Stone should have come from the granite state, because he resembled a slab of the rock, had about as many emotions as one, and he talked like he had a mouthful of it too.

"I couldn't possibly say," Kai replied, deadpan.

"Did he drop any babies? Did any puke on him?"

"I don't believe he was offered the chance. Mothers have never really been eager to hand them over to him."

Anna giggled. She could picture the scene. Annoyed and bored reporters standing in the rain as her fellow congressman stood under an umbrella held by someone else and talked. And talked. Richard Stone the senior congressman from Texas could talk about nothing forever. She guessed she couldn't blame them for wanting something from her. "Any questions about…?"

"One," Kai replied, knowing the sore subject he was broaching.

"What did he say?"

"He said something about the confidence of the new generation and the achievement of excellence at a young age. Various synonyms for youth."

She let out a sigh, and felt just a little bad for laughing at her old colleague. At twenty-five and sixty, the man was old enough for two of her, and no matter how much she smiled it seemed he was still having a little trouble adjusting to his junior colleague being two generations separated from him. The man still had trouble with the internet. He still raised most of his money from phone-banks and cold-calling, whereas Anna had made most of hers from online drives and her website. Still, she wished he'd refer to her age just a little less.

Her father had been so proud. _The baby of the house!_ he'd crowed, referring to the title normally given to the youngest member of congress. Anna had hated it the second she had heard it, and knew she'd have to fight to throw it off before it became a chain around her neck. _Oh god dad, please don't ever call me that in front of a camera,_ she had begged. He'd been thinking about the achievement, but she'd been thinking about how her new colleagues – every one of them older than her – would be looking at the small waifish girl suddenly in their midst, instead of the older man they had been expecting. In the year since she'd taken office so far she'd been right to be worried.

As the wheels of the tiny private plane touched down to the earth with a bump of rubber on tarmac, Anna fingered the thin sheaf of paper in her hand, words she had already memorised on the way over. It read like any other piece of paper to be devoured by the media; nice words meaning little. Anna hated the media. It felt like shouting at one of those novelty dogs with their heads on a pivot that made them endlessly nod. It didn't get anything _done._

_Ignore it. Get past it. Focus on the ball. That's the goal today._

_Take it one day at a time._

She took a breath and turned to her chief of staff, her family's oldest friend. Kai had shepherded her father through two terms as governor before his retirement, her mother as a city councillor (and much more effective than him, dear) for three terms, and now with their withdrawal from politics she had inherited him. Not that she had any complaints about that whatsoever. He'd been instrumental in the campaign, a friendly and well-known face to those older donors worried about giving money to someone who had more freckles than wrinkles, and ran a tight ship on the rest of her congressional staff where Anna's leadership could be a little…scattershot sometimes. If Elsa was the captain at the helm Kai was the first mate.

Anna glanced through the porthole and saw a small gaggle of press in the distance, by the doors that led into the terminal. Not many, maybe a dozen. Probably the rest were already at the mansion and trying desperately to bribe, blag or sleaze their way in, but her father had always told her that a single journalist caused trouble enough for a hundred mere mortals. "How do I look?" she asked, trying to smooth down her jacket.

 _Maybe you should have copied Stone, and tried cowboy boots and a Stetson._ But only male Texan politicians could get away with that.

Anna watched Kai give her a critical glance up and down, then reached forward the adjusted her collar. She cursed. She never had been able to get the damn things to fold right. "You look perfect, congresswoman." He looked her over, and Anna imagined herself as he was seeing her. She had wanted to come in something more comfortable, but Kai had convinced her on her first major foreign…expedition…she would want something just a little more traditional than a pantsuit.

 _Virginia isn't foreign,_ she had argued.

 _It's full of Virginians,_ Kai had said, a man who always knew which way pointed back to his beloved state, and didn't trust any of those weirdoes outside her borders.

She had bowed to his wisdom in the end. Nothing ostentatious or genre-defining for the day. A light blue shirt that didn't exactly match her complexion or hair but was all she had packed, and a black skirt that went to below her knees. A small bluebonnet for her lapel alongside the flag pin. Business-like but not too stuffy, charming without being over-casual. _Traditional,_ she thought with a sigh. At least at the ball she could break out one of the dresses. She didn't care for them as much as she did a regular jacket and pair of jeans, but they were more individual than _this._ She felt like an office-worker.

 _Technically you are. At least the office has_ your _name engraved on the brass plaque. Leif had a good grace to leave me that at least._ Not that he'd left her anything else. Normally the outgoing congressman would give a _few_ words of encouragement or help to the person replacing them. Since the results had come in through Leif had seemingly packed up in a night and vanished.

_Good riddance._

She stood before the cabin door and took a deep breath, and stepped out into the fresh Virginia air.

* * *

"Congratulations Ms Summerford."

"Thank you sir."

"A well-fought campaign."

"You had us 'till the end sir."

"I know you'll serve this great state with as much pride as I have these last eighteen years."

"It'll be an honour to follow in your footsteps congressman, and a challenge to best them," she said, reaching for every ounce of sophistication she could find through her nervousness.

"Yes, it will," Congressman Leif Westergard said. _Ex_ -congressman now, no matter whether Anna won the general election, and Anna was damn aware that she was the one who had put the man out of a job he'd held for more than a decade and a half. Both of them smiled for the cameras, but neither's smile reached their eyes. Anna's because she was full to, oh about the top of her neck, of bone-chilling terror at facing the huge barrel of a man at such close quarters, and his full of…full of… Nope, nothing. The man gave away nothing. He could have really meant it or he could have been plotting her death for all his eyes gave away.

Still Anna's fighting spirit spat out at his little insult. _You asshole, I gave you that compliment for free,_ she thought as she smiled, and shook clammy hands with the man, and paused to let the cameras capture the moment of her triumph. The dainty southern belle who ran a forlorn hope against the ancient grizzly bear and came out the other end with her honour intact and the bear's head on a stick. Let's ignore that in politics the bears you hunted went home alive and well to hunt another day, now with a giant chip on their shoulder. At least the man's sons weren't around to glare, this time. He had a lot of them, and rumour had it he already had seats on various school-sboards and county seats picked out for them like a king giving out dukedoms. Or at least he had, until a tiny slip of a girl had come along and tossed him on his significant ass. He'd run not a _dirty_ campaign – a little hard to dig up dirt on someone who hadn't been in politics long enough to even build a closet, let along fill it with skeletons – but he'd done his level best. A couple of newspapers had owed him favours, and she'd tried to ignore the headlines as best she could, but they still hurt.

"Will you be advising Ms Summerford going forward against the democratic candidate, congressman?"

Leif gave the wide-mouthed-eyes-closed smile he was famous for. Together with the off-white suit and the ten-gallon hat it made him look jovial, like a cross between the Colonel and the guy from Dallas. But Anna had grown up around Texas politicians and she knew he kept his eyes closed because due to some trick of the man's face – and immense girth let's be honest – the shadows around them when they were open made his pupils look dark as coal mines, and it wouldn't do to capture _that_ on film. Leif Westergard was an outstanding actor. And a giant snake. "It'd be a privilege to help usher in a new generation," he replied. "Anytime Ms Summerford needs help she just needs' pick up the phone and ask."

 _Not on your life!_ she thought with an inner laugh. She'd bet all the money in her pockets he was already planning a glorious return. Damned if she'd give him any ammo along the way.

 _Get that poisonous old woodlouse out of the roof beams before he brings the whole house down on you,_ her father had said at the campaign headquarters, with relish as the results had finally come in after ten agonising hours of counting and re-counting, and re-counting again. It had been a slim race and the 'poisonous old snake' had used every recount he legally had access to. It had blown up in his face finally when the third recount had shifted even more votes _her_ way, and he had finally given up.

 _Lawrence!_ his mother had said in shock, and swatted at him with a newspaper.

_I'm right though._

_That doesn't mean you have to be rude!_ Sarah Summerford had turned towards her daughter. _Ignore these foolish old men,_ she had said, bringing her into a huge hug that buried Anna against her. _We're so proud of you. Did we mention that?_

_A million times, mom._

_The baby of the house!_

_DAD!_

* * *

"Congresswoman Summerford, A pleasure as always."

She smiled as she stopped at the cameras, ignoring the damp in the Richmond air. She was in no rush. _You need to learn to deal with these people_ , Kai and her father had both said multiple times. Even after a year she was still learning. "Call me Anna, please."

"Have any comments for us then Anna?" the old man said, pushing his glasses further up his nose, where they stayed for a half-second before beginning to slip off again. An ancient lined and greying face in ancient faded jeans and an ancient moth-bitten leather coat that looked like it could have come back from Vietnam, Patrick 'Pabbie' Anderson had been a fixture in southern politics since her father's time. He didn't shout or hustle or demand like the newer generation of reporters did. He just smiled and nodded and asked nice reassuring softball questions, and it wasn't until you were checking the papers a month later that you realised you'd given him just enough for him to start digging, and once he started he didn't stop. There was an old saying that the mill of justice ground exceedingly slow but exceedingly fine. Pabbie worked the same way. He'd reported on her campaign, and although he'd had some words to say about her age she'd forgive him for it.

"About what?" she asked, mentally preparing herself.

"About your colleague's words this morning?" the genial old man asked, hands still in his pockets.

 _It's two am. Stone came in late last night, so he's had the whole day to open his big mouth. Oh lord._ "I'm sorry," she said as winningly as she could, "I've just got here as you can see, and they don't allow phones in the air. What's my senior colleague said?" _It better not be about…_

Pabbie reached into his coat and brought out a small notebook. He flipped it over. "'Naturally I look forward to spending time with my fellow member of congress. Ms Summerford is a fine-looking addition to the ball tonight and I expect that her presence will do nothing but dazzle-" Pabbie quoted on for a second, but the gist of it was clear.

It wasn't her age, oh no, but it was almost as bad. _Unbelievable. From a man whose wives just keep getting younger._ But she knew Pabbie was staring at her like a hawk with eyes that, while not unsympathetic, still had a job to do. She kept smiling, although it was becoming increasingly hard not to let it slip from her face. "I look forward to seeing my colleague at the ball," she replied tightly, and swept past the old man.

"Any thoughts about the guest list!" one of the other reporters shouted, seeing his chance before Anna reached the terminal doors.

"No," Anna said curtly, being on the ground for only minutes but already feeling sick of it.

"Any thoughts about the new queen?"

 _What?_ "What?"

"The Arendelle queen. Youngest ever, the same age as you! Think you'll have anything to talk about?"

Oh, she remembered now. Some queen over from Europe the press seemed enamoured with. She'd barely paid attention. It felt like she had spent the first year of her term barely getting any work done. First the transition, moving into DC and getting a new staff together as she told the shell-shocked old ones politely but firmly to leave. Then introductions, committees, meetings, more introductions. A month just looking over her shoulder, half expecting a giant white-suited phantom to plant a knife in her back. Half a year before she'd felt settled in and secure enough in her positions to start asking questions and speaking up. A year before the first tenuous offers from other legislators to invite her for coffee and opinions. Now two years into her term, and finally, _finally,_ she was on a committee she actually wanted to be on, and had the chance to _make something._ She didn't have any time for whatever was happening in the old world.

"I can't wait to meet her," she said, perhaps just a little too distracted as the glass doors slid shut on her, leaving the reporters behind on the runway. Anna sighed with not a little exasperation as she shook off the condensation on her jacket. She already had a hit-list for the ball. People she needed to speak to, favours to ask. The queen of some little country across the sea wasn't on it.

_I have more important things to think about._

* * *

"God, do I really have to meet with all these other people?" she asked as she scanned her eyes down the page.

"Consider them an obstacle course between you and the goal," Kai tried to soothe her.

But Anna remained un-soothed. She examined the dress in the mirror. She had planned ahead and had a bunch delivered to the hotel room ahead of time, and good job too. She didn't much like the image of herself coming into a hotel with a suitcase full of dresses.

The jokes about her age she could handle, at least until she had a few more years on her ( _a few more than you've told them about,_ a nasty little corner of her mind whispered to her) and she wasn't the youngest member of congress anymore. She'd take the sticks and stones about inexperience and naiveté, the latter of which, well, how was a little optimism a bad thing? The former simply wasn't true. She'd grew up in and around state politics, which was complex at the best of times and a god-damn catwalk of razorblades at the worst. She'd gotten lucky. No, strike that, she'd gotten _extremely_ lucky. Godlike luck. That luck had come with a cost though. She'd leap-frogged over more than one level of 'traditional' experience you were 'meant' to travel through on the way to DC, and all of them now hated her, and making off-the-record remarks about your opponents and superiors was a time-honoured tradition.

She knew she'd been in more than a few papers, and not just the big ones. She was a young and attractive face in a job still throttled with old men. When she had been younger she had loved nothing more in summer than shucking off her shoes and jumping in the pool to cool off. Now she didn't even own swimsuits anymore. Old comfortable sweatpants didn't see the light of day outside her bedroom. Shorts and crop-tops and oh, basically anything without 90% skin coverage, was gone. About all she had left for casual wear she could be seen in without drawing disapproving glances were the old Texas standbys: The checked shirt and jeans it seemed like every single one of them had trotted out at one point during the campaign. Probably the incidence between wearing those and having to stand next to a horse or cow was pretty much one-for-one. Anna loved clothes, but she was damned if she'd let herself be seen as some hustling rube out of the backwater.

 _Dresses and pantsuits from here on out kid,_ her father had said, not unkindly.

Balls like this were her only chance to wear something she loved, and she'd risk being treated as a delicate summer flower for a single night if it gave her the chance to wear something that wasn't synthetic.

"An obstacle course that'll try to fill me up with so much free food I can't move," she griped, holding up another. White cotton wraparound with a scarf? Nope, it looked too much like a prom dress. She wasn't going to give the impression she had just come from her highschol.

"Your father always did say the main point of these parties was to eat well, and any business you manage otherwise is a bonus."

"My father had time, I don't." Purple polyester that might have been curtains in a previous life. Nope, didn't match her hair, too shiny, cheap-looking. She tossed it back onto the bed.

"You have four years left on your term Anna."

"Three, really." She had watched enough election campaigns from the outside. You spent your last year not so much governing as just asking people for money and then running for office all over again. Red silk that almost matched her hair, floor length but backless. _God_ no, that would just be asking for trouble and unkind comparisons.

"You're only twenty-seven Anna, you have plenty of time to leave your mark."

It was a testament to how many times the lie had been told that neither of them even reacted to it anymore. Anna no longer got the feeling of settling dread in her stomach, and Kai's eyes no longer narrowed in faint disapproval.

"Kai, I want to leave a mark so deep the next guy can't just come and fill it back up." Crumbling schools and hungry kids, and every time she had visited the state government there had been new leather seats and computers. Falling wages and too many prisons opening while factories closed. "I need to start _now_ ," she said. "I can't just _assume_ I'll get re-elected." Especially with some of what she wanted to do that _hadn't_ been in her campaign. She had _wanted_ to talk about them, but Kai had screamed at her to beg off, and even though it felt like a tiny portion of her soul had been ripped out as she did so, she had listened.

"True. Look what you did to Westergard," Kai said, voice bone-dry. There was some kind of run-in there that Anna didn't know about, she thought. Kai had been the first person to volunteer for her campaign, practically the second she had begun asking, and Anna suspected her opponent being Leif Westergard had something to do with it. Not that she would ever ask. Her father might know.

She held up another. Something she had almost forgotten she had sent for. A floor length dark green number with a corset at the waist that went off-the-shoulder. A thin strip of silk ran around the top, decorated with a row of flowers. "What are these?" Anna asked, running a finger across it as she held it up. It _did_ look good, and she was running out of options. God, this was so much easier for men. Maybe she'd just turn up in a tux, really get her name in some papers. The flower-patterned silk strip had a small extra piece of cloth that looked like it hadn't detached properly coming off whatever factory line the dress had come from. She tore it delicately, and put it in her breast pocket.

"They're crocuses, I believe," Kai said at a glance, the encyclopaedia. God, what should she do without him? Her father had tried to get him to resign more than once and actually live a life outside of the Summerfords before he keeled over, but the man wouldn't have it. He was like one of those ancient old butlers on that English show her mother liked.

She frowned. "Isn't that an Alabama thing?"

"That's camellias."

"They're not bluebonnets."

"I won't tell if you don't."

She collapsed onto the bed clutching the soft velvet. "What the hell have I gotten myself into?"

She had been as surprised as anyone that she had gotten the invitation. The _rest_ of the guest-list she had looked over and yep, there everyone was, the usual suspects. The old fossils from Ways and Means, Agriculture and House Administration. A couple of the younger rising stars spinning their wheels on Rules or Small Business before a seat opened up with one of the big boys (that Anna might have been considered a rising star was something she never really considered). Then her, way at the bottom, so to speak, on Education. Not even the big one either, one of the small ones. Not even the leader of it.

 _United States House Education Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labour, and Pensions_ had no huge budget associated with it, so it had no huge lobbying aimed at them. Corporations didn't offer them long trips to discuss business, or learning junkets in exotic locations. She didn't have lawyers trampling down her door asking for just a little favour, or a small wording change in a bill, in exchange for promises of funding. Leif Westergard had been on Ways and Means and grew fat from it, but there had been zero way anyone was going to let a twenty-seven year old on her first term anywhere near the big levers.

Yet here she was. The first big ball of the summer held by one of the biggest lobbyists in the country, filled with the biggest donors and businessmen of the south. More importantly filled with fellow congressmen with much more power than she had, most likely getting liquored up and therefore be much more amenable to…influence. Also, she hoped, amenable to crazy suggestions from small first-time congresswomen.

The hell with it. If someone was playing with her she'd play right back. Her stomach was all butterflies and her hands felt like pins and needles but if this was her big shot she would take it.

The dress went on without a trouble, and she gave it an experimental swish-and-twirl in the mirror. She looked good, she wouldn't lie. She'd always been fairly svelte, and had avoided the 'campaign dozen' from stale pizza and cheap sandwiches. A few more freckles than she would have liked and she would never need to have a dress let out in the chest, but otherwise she liked the package she had. She patted down her hair to make sure it was staying in place, her usual braids piled up onto her head to keep them out of her face, and turned to Kai.

"Let's dazzle them."

* * *

"I screwed up real bad," she whispered frantically.

The mansion had been a huge rectangle of granite that sat hidden behind two acres of fields and trees that were practically a forest. She had twiddled her thumbs as the limo had climbed the long and winding gravel path trying to keep her breath under control. _Ugly_ , had been her first thought when the path had straightened out and the massive edifice had come into view. The place looked like it had been built to fend off an attack by the British, or zombies, not to be lived in, and no amount of bunting or soft lighting changed those hard shadows.

She had got out of the rented limo and smiled adoringly for the cameras, only for the entire group to be led straight through the mansion and out again. She hadn't realised when the invitation had said 'mansion', the party was being held in the gardens behind the mansion. Now she was wearing a long dress on a lawn that a couple of hundred people were walking through, and she knew – she _knew –_ that no matter how hard she tried there would be at least one picture tomorrow of her hiking her skirts up out of mud.

 _At least I can stick to the path,_ she thought as she looked longingly out over the rest of the garden. It was like all of the beauty the house lacked had instead been thrown out into them. The rest of the small hill the mansion rested on was all tall and sprightly pines, but those stopped dead at the gates, and inside it was like another world. Just looking out from the small balcony before descending the stairs to enter the gardens proper, Anna looked out over a gorgeous emerald lawn studded with more colours than she thought possible. Impossibly shapes trees that seemed to twist around themselves thrust from immaculately shaped hedges to form a canopy of reds and golds over the garden. People mingled around a small wavering river that split the garden in two, with one side being filled with gorgeously rugged stone walling and hedges and a riot of roses and gardenias, and the other being a more ordered, almost eastern arrangement of rock pools, small cultured trees and tall reeds and grasses. The colours changed so that the two worlds blended together seamlessly, with bridges criss-crossing them every dozen meters or so. In the distance Anna could spot the river widening to a large, almost lake-sized pool, with a wooden gazebo dotted with vines and lights straddling the middle.

"Admiring the handiwork?"

She turned at the voice. Then she looked down to find a short old man looking up at her. "It's gorgeous, mister…" Damnit, she should have known this. Of course! "Weselton." She got it right first time. Kai had actually practised it with her. The man was old and eccentric but he owned enough land that if a map was drawn up that moustache would be on a good portion of it. He liked to brag that he didn't know jack about the IT, plastics, aerospace or food industry, but they sure as hell paid him rent.

For a second he reminded her of Kai, but that vanished more or less instantly. Where she could have taken a ruler to Kai's back, the man in front of her seemed perpetually hunched over. She watched with fascination as he twirled his bone-white moustache before holding out his hand. She held out her own and instead of shaking he actually bowed low and kissed it, and was that a toupee? Oh god it was! Luckily he rose back up before it could fall off his head. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance congresswoman." He did something with his eyebrows, and it took her a second to realise he was trying to make it look like his eyes were twinkling. Her dad had done the same once. Maybe it was an old man thing.

"It's an amazing place you have here," she said, and meant it. "And filled with some amazing people." _Wow Anna, really?_ God she hoped nobody heard that.

The man leaned closer to her and Anna swore she could already smell the tang of alcohol there. Had the man been getting a head start on his stores before they were gone? Congress were known fools for free food and drink, maybe he was pre-empting them. " _Indeed!_ Quite the little guest-list I've arranged. Quite the catches, some of them. Have you heard who's coming?" He rattled off a list of names, actors and TV personalities and authors she had barely had time to pay attention to since she had taken office. Anna's social life had been zero'd out the second she had taken the oath, and her knowledge of recent pop culture was flat-lining and the doctors said it wasn't looking good. Books these days were briefing memos and folders on legislature, and TV was C-SPAN and congress's internal circuit-TV.

"-and the queen of course. Westergard was _quite_ jealous."

 _Wait, Westergard? Queen?_ "Excuse me?" she said, her polite nodding and smiling suddenly derailed.

"Oh, I'm certain he offered her an invitation to his own little dig this weekend, but his star is quite out of favour at the moment, no thanks to yourself!" he laughed, and Anna cringed. God, she wished people would stop reminding her of it. Made her want to check her tote bag for scorpions. But Leif was holding his own party huh? She wondered who was there besides his sons, if Weselton had claimed everyone, including apparently the queen. That at least was something she knew. Mainly because the awful tabloids she appeared in sometimes tended to include the royal as well. "I'm sure she'll be along shortly," Weselton said, rubbing his hands together. "Her aide is already skulking around here somewhere."

She smiled politely as she felt the crush of other bodies at her back. "I hope we can talk more later!" she said, as the pressure bore her down into the gardens.

He gave a flowery bow. Unreal. "Depend upon it, madam."

But she was past him, and once the man was out of her sight she put him out of her mind. She had bigger fish to fry tonight, and she couldn't afford to be distracted by pleasantries. She had a list in her head and she wanted to hit up all of them at least once, with the big guns later in the night when the spirits had been flowing for a few hours. Her father had told her the week before;

_Parties like this might not be where you get promises of work done_

* * *

"Excuse me."

She pushed her way past another gathering, trying to get to a clean area, and more importantly away from the throng of reporters she hadn't realised would be allowed into the place. If it had just been Pabbie it wouldn't have been so bad, but apparently Weselton had given passes to people based on circulation and page hits, and the result had been a bunch of pushy assholes who'd so far asked her more about what she was wearing than about what they were there for.

"Of course they're bluebonnets, excuse me," she said, gently pushing her way past a young man with a tablet and his shirt hanging out of his trousers.

Finally she found a sea of tranquillity in the throng, next to one of the small rock ponds on what she'd come to think of as the 'western' side of the gardens. A small stone wall on the edge of the gardens, with a small gargoyle trickling water into a half-circle pool filled with fish. She caught her breath and dangled a finger in it and watched as the koi – what else – swarmed around her finger looking for food.

"You look like I feel."

 _Oh god what now, I just wanted five minutes to myself._ She just looked around and plastered her smile back on her face at whatever reporter was…

Nope. If this man was ever a reporter it for one of those war-torn zones overseas that changed hands twice a day. Brown eyes looked down at her from what seemed to be an incredible height, under dirty-blonde hair that looked halfway between styled and trying desperately to break out of that style and turn into some kind of tangled mess. Maybe he wasn't a grizzled veteran journalist but he was definitely security with a build like that, in a plain black suit that it looked like he could have burst out of if he really tried. Even leaning against the stone wall and with his left hand dropping down to the small plate of canapés balanced on the wall, he looked impressive.

"How bad is that exactly?" she asked, after she had gathered her thoughts. _Yep, definitely security of some kind._ Even when he was talking the man's eyes kept scanning the rest of the party, and he kept his right hand free. Anna knew a lot of people like that, from her father's job, to when she had started in congress. A lot of people she knew treated them as background objects, or worse as convenient servants. She never would though. Maybe her job meant one day a crazy nut would start tossing bombs at her, but _they'd_ be the ones who'd have to jump in front of them.

The huge blonde shrugged. "Not so bad. Might have seen better."

"I can be better than this."

"I can believe that," the man said. Anna watched in fascination as he actually blushed, and looked away. _For real?_ "Sorry."

She smiled. "No, I'm flattered, thanks. Anna Summerford." She reached out a hand – her left – and he shook it.

"Krisoff Bjorgman."

"I don't think we've met before, are you with congressional staff? Bjorgman's a fairly unique name for-

He adjusted his collar. "No, actually, you wouldn't have. I mean I'm not with the US staff. It's Norwe- _I'm_ Norwegian. I'm with them. The queen. Well not _with_ her but I'm on her detail. I mean I'm…oh jeez."

The blush deepened. It was kind of adorable. "The Arendelle delegation?" She had to admit she was curious. She remembered what Pabbie had said that afternoon on the tarmac at the airport; _Youngest ever, the same age as you! Think you'll have anything to talk about?_ "How are you enjoying the US?"

"Oh I think it's great," Kristoff said. "Everything's so much… _more,_ " he said. She got what he meant though.

"It can be a little overwhelming," she admitted. She was still getting used to it herself. When she was younger her family name and her dad's job had gotten her through a lot of doors, and now her new one was doing so on a whole other level. The ability to ask for things and just… _get them_ …was a little overpowering. Places she'd never gotten a chance to see or that would have tossed out another girl smiled and let her in. People listened to her opinions – admittedly some because they _had_ to. She'd been in congress for two years and already felt that yes, _this_ was the place she could do the most good for her state.

She told all of this to Kristoff, who just watched in amazement. "Wow, they weren't kidding about you."

"What, who wasn't kidding?" she asked.

The blush returned as he answered. "Well, just some newspapers you know?"

Oh god. "Which ones?" He named a couple and now _she_ was the one blushing. "Listen you shouldn't believe everything you-"

"No no, I get that," he said. "It's just you tend to turn up in the same newspapers as my boss and we have to read them all."

Oh, of course. She desperately tried to steer the conversation away from herself. "What's she like, the queen?"

"Oh wow, big question. Not sure how to answer. Not sure if I _should._ "

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. It's just-" He opened his mouth to speak again, but Anna heard a crackling, and the man was speaking Norwegian into his lapel. "Sorry, duty calls."

"No problem. Thanks for letting me get some air." And she _did_ feel better. Just a few minutes outside the push-and-shove and she felt a little reinvigorated. That and the canapés she had stolen from him probably helped. "See you around."

"You too congresswoman."

* * *

The only warning she got was the lights, and her eyes were starting to hurt.

It seemed like the trick was always the same. She would smile and he – he was invariable a _he_ – would smile and they would grasp hands, and the flash from the camera or the phone would go off, and that would be it. Done. They would talk for a few polite seconds and then the man would make an excuse or look over her shoulder and see an old friend he just _had_ to talk to, and she would be left alone.

Not that she could entirely blame them. They were big money and she was a tiny fish. Other congressmen and senators were much more polite, and she _did_ have friends in the gardens. They laughed and commiserated and they would tell her the first term was the hardest and to not give up. Wasn't entirely comforting, but at least she had made a good start. Afternoon had turned to evening, and she had basically done what she had set out to do; get her presence out into a wider circle. People knew her name now, some might even remember it. She'd had enough pictures taken and the dress and makeup had definitely had an impact. More than one reporter – a couple already slurring their words – had asked why she hadn't come with a date, but she had smiled and deflected them away. It was a question her father might have asked her and she had no desire to dive into it at a party she was barely tolerating. The hem of her dress was looking more than a little muddy and her hairdo had come loose, but otherwise she was still standing.

At least the reporters were mainly leaving her alone now, all going off to see the new curiosity, the new queen. More giant blonde men had made their presences felt as the afternoon had turned into evening, and now the mansion was buzzing as she sat somewhere inside, talking. A bunch of the old money-men had followed inside, going after favours or press or whatever, and not a few congressmen had gone with her. Anna had elected to stay outside in the gardens a little longer now they weren't quite so crushed with people.

The gardens were even more beautiful at night, if that were possible. Candles and lanterns coated each side respectively, giving the western half an ethereal white shine and the eastern half a gorgeous golden hue. As the night went on more and more Anna felt herself slipping out of the business-like mind she had entered with, and just spent time wandering the grounds, mind faintly buzzing and a genuine smile on her face. She wasn't the only one either. Weselton was holding court at various points as she passed, talking about this stone wall or that expensive koi he had imported. The man seemed much calmer when he was all fogged up on his own wine, although he seemed to have forgotten that his 'prize' had arrived. Maybe the old man assumed that she would come to him?

_Not likely._

Finally as she walked had suddenly Anna found nothing in front of her but water, and looked out over the small lake at the end of the garden. She was almost alone, this far away from the house not being the most well-travelled by the plate-carrying staff, and when she looked out over the set-piece it took her breath away. _Not bad old man._ The white wooden gazebo seemed to hang in the air at the centre, only two small bridges connecting it to either end of the garden, the other supports being painted to almost blend in with the water. The hill the entire mansion was built on dipped sharply away, so that it seemed that past the Gazebo there was only forest. The view down from the structured and cultured gardens down to the free and un-tamed wilds must be amazing.

_That I have to see._

She took a step forward and almost slipped on the wet grass. Sighing, not really thinking, she reached down under her dress and took her heels off. A few errant strands from her increasingly loose 'do kept tickling her nose and felt like it was going to slide off her head infuriated her, so she reached inside and un-wove it, letting her hair shake out behind her. She could always say someone knocked it later, and she did like wearing it simple sometimes. The grass was warm against her bare feet, and she stepped onto the small wooden bridge, leaving footprints. It creaked a little under her but she ignored it, eyes looking all around her. It was a beautiful old thing. Vines covered the outside, blooming into small blue flowers that dotted the surface like stars and hiding the inside.

She walked through the vine-covered open archway and found herself inside the gazebo. Fireflies danced around the entire structure, darting in and out and wheeling in the sky. It was like a fairy-tale. Light streamed in from the furthest side of the wooden frame, a white stone statue looking out over the forest beneath. She stepped forward to stand next to it when a shadow detached from the side of the entryway behind her and grasped her lightly be the shoulder.

"Anna?" a deep accented voice said in puzzlement.

She blinked as she was gently turned around, and the shadow resolved itself into a person: "Kristoff?"

The man spoke a short word into his lapel. "Hello, again. You're a long way from the party."

"I could say the same thing about you." Anna turned back and squinted. If she looked closely she could still see the flat black suits of security down at the manor, mixed in with the more ostentatious and more expensive clothing of the actual guests. She could see camera flashes inside. "I needed some air from…well…from all that."

Kristoff followed her gaze. "I can understand that."

 _Wait a second._ "Speaking of which if you're out here, you're a long way from your boss aren't you?"

"Umm. Not really?"

"Kristoff? Is someone there?"

Anna turned to look at the same time as the statue did, and she met the Queen of Arendelle.

* * *

"Hello."

"Hi."

Kristoff looked from one to the other and sighed. "Ma'am this is Congresswoman Anna Summerford of the United States. Anna, this is her majesty Queen Elsa, of Arendelle."

Anna cleared her throat but still the sounds that came out of her mouth felt squeaky, smaller. "It's a pleasure, really."

She was gorgeous, Anna knew that. She'd seen her picture in the paper over the last couple of years, sometimes right next to her own. What Anna hadn't know was that she was _radiant._ Her hair was blonde like Kristoff's but it was almost platinum, so white that it practically glowed in the lights being reflected from the surface of the lake, bound up in a single long braid that ran past her neck and down her front. Her dress went almost down to the ground, going from a light blue at the bottom to almost white as it reached her hands and neck, blending into her light skin so that it looked like it was a part of her. Geometric patterns like snowflakes whorled around her legs and skirt, throwing off smaller sequins like snowflakes, all of it coming together into a six-pointed star near her collar. On her head rested the only sign she wasn't just another guest; a five-pointed tiara in white gold, with a small blue gem resting in the centre. Even her gloves her gorgeous, made of thin blue silk the same colour as the centre of her dress, and decorated with…wait.

"Crocuses?"

Elsa was staring at the top of her dres. "I've been telling people they're bluebonnets," she said quickly. "You…you know them?" _Oh hell Anna don't get tongue-tied in front of royalty. Don't do it don't do it don't do it!_

"They're my country's national flower," Elsa said. "It's very pretty." She stepped forward, and before Anna could register it Elsa was brushing a hand across the thin silk strip that topped her dress.

_Did she mean the flowers, or the dress?_

For half a second both of them stayed like that, then the queen's hand jumped back as if contact with Anna had shocked her. The skin that had been creamy white suddenly blushed, and Anna simply had to look away, in second-hand embarrassment. She found herself staring out over the wild forest outside of the garden. "It's beautiful isn't it?" she said, feeling the silence weighing her down like an anchor. Endless rows of pine and oak and a dozen other trees laid before them before vanishing into the darkness. About what Anna wished she could do right now in fact. Thank god no-one was here to see her make an ass of herself.

"It is," the queen said, turning back to look out at the vista. Her voice was almost…melancholy. "It reminds me of home."

Anna trawled her memory for what she knew about Arendelle. A small country just north of Norway, right? What did Norway have? Snow. Nope, that was dumb. Well, trees most probably. Oh the hell with it, fall back on pleasantries. "I'm glad we could show you something that did. Remind you of home. That is." Zero for zero. Incredible. Taking her oath from the President hadn't gone this badly. "Have you been having a good night?" she asked.

The queen of Arendelle gave her a radiant smile and said: "Hardly."

Anna watched as Elsa frozen. Her breath actually seeming to stop, and Anna knew that wasn't what she had meant to say. For a second the tables were turned, and suddenly Anna was the one looking calmly at the other woman, the same age as her-

_Liar._

-who was suddenly looking very panicked indeed. _The hell with it._ "You want to know a secret your majesty?"

"What?" Elsa asked, almost breathing the word rather than speaking.

"Me neither," Anna said softly, and smiled back.

Elsa burst out laughing, so much so that Kristoff actually took a step forward in alarm before sinking back into the shadows.

Elsa wiped her eyes. "Thank you. I needed that."

Anna was too curious for her own good. "What are you doing here anyway?" she asked the beautiful young woman. "Wouldn't have thought European royalty would find much to do at a party made primarily to liquor up old men and get re-election money and laws out of them."

"Well, I'm not an old man but I _am_ here for currency, of a sort. Goodwill."

"PR," they both said at the same time, and they both laughed again.

Somehow it seemed…easy now. Like their momentary awkwardness had just been a barrier that needed to be broken through. "I know that story. I need a whole bunch of it. Goodwill is like actual money in congress."

"You're the youngest, correct?" Elsa asked.

"Well, not the youngest _ever_ ," Anna said as Elsa smiled at her. My, was it hot in here somehow. _Please don't let me blush_. "William Claiborne will probably hold that award until the end of the world. Youngest currently." She remembered what she had read. "You too."

A shadow flicked across Elsa's face for just a second. "Yes. It's a big bur- it's a big responsibility."

Anna could see there was something there. She spent all her time surrounded by people who made promises and promised the world, and Elsa clearly didn't. She ignored it though. Not her problem. She felt bad though. She was high-level and incredibly young for it, but Queen Elsa was a head-of-state. An _absolute_ head of state, if she remembered right. An awesome position. _God, what could I do if I was Queen-Empress of America?_ "I'd be glad that something like this could help with that, if only for a few days," she said.

Elsa smiled at her. A real smile, not the politicians smile she had grown so used to seeing, that showed as many teeth as possible and stopped before it ever reached the eyes. When Queen Elsa smiled her cheeks turned up and her eyes narrowed just a felt like a breath of fresh air after two years of old men.

Anna realised that she was standing practically shoulder to shoulder with the queen, both of them with their hands on the balcony as they stared out over the forest. Suddenly an idea occurred to her.

 _You see a shot, you take it,_ her father had told her. _Maybe it's a good choice and maybe it's a bad one, but sometimes saying 'I got it wrong' is better than sitting on your hands and missing out and saying 'I couldn't decide'._

"If goodwill and PR is what we're both after, I don't see why we can't arrange something."

Elsa looked at her. This closely Anna could see deeply into the other woman's eyes. They were incredibly blue. She felt like she could have lost herself in them. "How?" Elsa whispered, staring directly into Anna's eyes. She smelled like flowers. Like she imagined the crocuses on Elsa's gloves and her dress smelled like. It was overpowering.

"Virginia's nice, don't get me wrong, but it isn't Texas. We'd love to show you around. Give you a real idea about what the south can be like. It isn't desert like in the movies, it has so much beauty." And on she went, about hiking and sports, and the food and theatre. History and culture and art. She took a deep breath. "I'm sure Arendelle is beautiful in the summer. I'd love to visit." She really would. If she got to spend more time around Elsa. Because she wanted to know her better, she realised. She wanted to spend more time around this beautiful, powerful creature who she had practically bumped into by accident. Something in the blonde was magnetic, and Anna felt a pull she hadn't felt in quite some time.

She wanted a friend.

Elsa smiled at her. "It'd be a pleasure," she said, and Anna felt herself smiling back. Elsa's eyes flicked back towards the mansion as something white – not a camera – flashed in the air. "Wow."

Fireworks burst in the air over the gardens. One half white and blue over the western side, the other half gold and red over the east. It looked like the entire party had moved out into the gardens to watch, and the noise of the fireworks that burst above them seemed almost drowned out by the clapping from the ground.

"Duke, you throw a hell of a party," Anna whispered to herself, gripping the balcony of the gazebo as the air was filled with a riot of colours and patterns. She could barely hear herself think.

"Look," Elsa whispered, pointing up as a giant blue-white firework burst in a snowflake pattern above them, and put her own hands there too.

Anna could feel the heat coming from Elsa's glove. She didn't dare move her hand, in case Elsa noticed and moved hers, but the queen showed no signs of that. Anna watched Elsa's face, the smile there as she stared up at the fireworks display, the light that glinted from her electric blue eyes and amazing dress. She felt entranced.

Compared to those few minutes the rest of the night was…

Unremarkable.

* * *

"Did it go well?"

"Hmmm?"

Kai watched as the girl – and he would always think of her as a girl no matter how high she rose – stared out of the cabin porthole with a look of beatific daze on her face, her face held in her hands and a faint smile of contentment on her face. If he didn't know any better, he would swear…"I asked whether the weekend went well, _congresswoman_."

"Oh! Yes! Yes, very well indeed." Anna nodded for a second, then just went back to staring out of the window. She was staring down at the ground as they left, wondering if she squinted hard enough whether she could catch sight of the mansion from the air. Back to DC for a couple of days to vote on some bills she liked and keep up on her committee membership, then home to Texas again to see her parents, and get back to work on the things she really cared about.

She fingered the small strip of green from the dress. It was a coincidence really. She had put it in her pocket after removing it from the dress, and simply had pocketed it rather than make a mess for the hotel staff. Just a coincidence, something for her fingers to occupy themselves with on the flight. Nothing more.

Just a coincidence.

* * *

"Did you have a good time?"

"Yes ma'am," Kristoff replied, watching his boss. A table separated the two of them, filled with reports and files and documents, but he could tell that Elsa wasn't looking at any of them. Free from even the shadow of the press taking a picture, she sat practically cross-legged on the seat in old sweatpants and a woollen sweater he remembered her mother had bought her one year. A pencil tapped at her lip as she looked down at them without seeing them. "The canapés were excellent," he said, and glanced down at the document on top of all the rabble. It was a map of the United States of America. Kristoff knew what she was thinking about, because he had heard from Marshall how the only meeting that had really mattered that weekend had gone. Kristoff had only had a glance of him, as Elsa had left the mansion and went into the gardens, but from the frown that had been on the wizened old man's and how Elsa had acted for the rest of the night, it hadn't gone well.

Well, apparently not the _only_ meeting that had mattered, if what had occured after the meeting with Weselton had actually been real and not some strange fever dream from all the heat. "Congresswoman Summerford and I talked. She was very pleasant to me." _Even if she stole my canapés._

At _that_ Elsa glanced up, her focus changing from a cone of fog to a laser-tight beam. Kristoff knew some people had trouble dealing with Elsa's gaze, but years together had toughened him up to it. "Anna? Yes, she was nice. She…she had some good ideas."

"Should I tell the pilot to make a hard turn and head for Texas?" Kristoff risked.

Elsa's eyes narrowed and she batted at his forehead with her pen. "Quiet, you."

"Yes ma'am."

"But it's certainly something to think about," Elsa said, half a whisper. She laid her head back on the plush armrest and closed her eyes, and saw a pale woman dressed in gorgeous greens, wearing her own country's flower, with flowing red hair like fire and eyes out of a deep ocean. "Something to…think about," she muttered, as she dropped to sleep after an exhausting weekend that had went nowhere.

Well, almost nowhere.

She dreamed of emeralds.


	2. Chapter 2

It was too hot.

It was too hot and she felt like she could hardly breathe, every lungful drawn in only through great effort through the soup in the air. She imagined her organs simply giving up halfway through the day and leaving her gasping and suffocating in the atmosphere. Or she could boil alive. At least that way the suffering would be over.

"Are you okay ma'am?" Kristoff asked from behind her. She turned to look at him. Tall and blonde and imposing, he showed exactly zero signs that the heat and humidity were affecting him.

"I'm fine," she said.

"As you say your majesty," Kristoff said, the way he always did when he didn't believe her.

She looked out, past the terminal and past the tarmac runway, and saw for miles. It was…breath-taking, was the only way she could see to describe it. The land beneath her seemed to go on forever. A few meters past the runway it felt like mankind ceased to exist, and nature re-claimed the land instantly, covering it in an endless carpet of grass so green it took her breath away, and rolling fields of something long and golden ( _wheat,_ she remembered from her hastily scribbled notes) that wavered and flowed in the soft wind like a golden sea. It was an illusion of course. The golden fields out there were money to the man she was going to meet, every blade of grass and corn tended year-round. If she squinted she could see the glints of working machinery, also owned by the man. Probably made in his factories too.

In Arendelle the view from the castle went as far as the major town across the mote, and then unceremoniously ended where mountains rose up to block it. And never mind re-claiming it, nature had never let her grip over them waver for a second. The snow covered everything, beautiful and pure but also fierce and unrelenting. Some days Elsa would leave the castle with as small an escort as she could and walk a small ways up the huge mountain closest to the castle, just as far as the forest that ringed it that for centuries had never been cut down. She would stand just inside the dense clusters of oaks and pine, drawing deep breaths of the air and feeling the tiny daggers cleanse her from within. It was _her_ country, and she loved it.

Still, it was nice to get away. If Arendelle was still in some ways an untamed wilderness, Virginia seemed more of a well-tended garden. Elsa loved gardens. She suspected Weselton knew it. When the man had offered the meeting he had spent a good time extolling the place at length, and eventually she had agreed. To stop him talking, if nothing less.

"Are you alright Elsa?" Kristoff asked softly. He only used her name when the two of them were alone. He handed her a handkerchief as she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and brought it away wet. "Do you need anything?"

 _I need to get off this tarmac._ "No, thank you Kristoff." Any longer and she was considering going back into the plane for-

"Sir," Kristoff said, coming to something more like attention as a huge shape in black walked towards them from the airport terminal, resolving itself into her chief of security. He towered over Elsa, and even had a few inches over Kristoff. Unlike most of her detail who all tended to the blonde-haired look, Marshall's was dirtier, brown hairs scattered in his scraggly mop. It made him look like he had a headful of straw, not that anyone would say that to his face. Even at forty he had arms to make younger men shrink away.

"They should have been here before us," he rumbled, in a voice that could have started avalanches. No, wait, it would be more likely to be rock-slides here. The tone in his voice made it clear what he thought though.

"It's not an insult. I asked for the privacy," she replied, tugging at the sleeves of her new and still-scratchy suit's sleeves. She didn't like the colour, but Marshall had insisted if they were going to be travelling light he wanted her in 'camouflage'. It meant off-brand suits in drab colours instead of the light shades she normally liked. It meant a corporate jet borrowed from a northern businessman who owed her a favour. It meant her tiara was safely locked away in a secure box that had arrived ahead of her with a small detail of its own.

The terrible suits she could live with if she really had to. The plane, similar, although the small seats and lack of a way to stretch had her legs feeling cramped. The last one though she had no problems with. She would put up with less-than lavish transportation and clothes that made her itch if it meant she could walk around a free woman without the weight of the thing on her head, at least for a day or two.

"Finally," Marshall said, as the limo drew up, flat black and featureless. The door slid open to let an equally-generic man climb out.

"Apologies for the wait your highness," the nameless functionary said cheerfully. "Duke apologises for not being here to greet you himself, unfortunately vital business elsewhere-"

She let him motor-mouth for a few seconds more before waving a hand. "Perfectly understandable." _Please let's just go._ She felt a headache coming on from the heat that radiated from the rubbery black runway and she climbed into the interior of the limo as quickly as was proper. Even the leather inside felt stuffy, but at least the sun wasn't beating down on her anymore as Kristoff and Marshall climbed in after her and shut the door against the heat.

"We have some time before the party your majesty," Marshall intoned. "Everything is already at the house, including the rest of your detail. We'll be there in a half-hour."

A second house. What was even the _point_ of owning a second house less than ten minutes' drive away from a huge mansion? Was it for his dog? Did he even own a dog? She thought of her own dog, back in Arendelle, and sighed. "Has there been any news from home?" she asked, hoping for something to distract her as the limo pulled away from the private airstrip and started moving through the endless fields of grass and wheat. It was almost hypnotising.

"Nothing your majesty," Marshall replied. "Everything's working fine. Gerda is on-site with the company and will have the reports for you directly when you return."

"That's good," Kristoff replied.

"Yes, it is." Gerda would make sure nothing untoward happened while she was away. The company had made promises and had come recommended, but she still didn't quite trust them. They were too smooth, their smiles too easy. Maybe a ridiculous reason not to trust somebody, but Elsa had never trusted easily, and so far it had worked out well for her. If it had been up to her she would have tossed them out of the country the moment the crown touched her head, but contracts were contracts.

_The crown._

She rubbed her head, and imagined she could feel a ghost there, still pressing down on the top of her forehead. She had never gotten used to it, even after three years.

Had never wanted to.

* * *

She looked at herself in the mirror and felt like a fraud. Like a child that had gotten into her mother's wardrobe while she was away and was playing dress-up with the clothes found inside. Like a girl going on a cheap fancy-dress party in a cheap princess costume. The sceptre in her hand felt like plastic and shiny paint and coloured glass beads, even though it was made of finest oak and topped with gold and gemstones. The cross-topped orb of the _globus cruciger_ in the other felt like a painted egg, topped with a wooden cross, wrapped in yellow tin-foil. The crown jewels of Arendelle felt cheap in her hands.

No, _she_ made them feel cheap. Her holding them was what cheapened them.

"You look radiant, dear," her father said, gently reaching up and brushing a single platinum hair back into place. She had it in a single long braid, not because she particularly cared for the style, but because it had been her mothers. His fingers shook, ever so slightly, as he did so. In the mirror she could see the creases and wrinkles in his skin as he gently placed the errant hair back in its braid. They looked like an old man's fingers, even though he was barely fifty.

"I really…I don't think this is necessary," Elsa whispered, her voice cracking as she did, and that wasn't what she wanted to say. She felt hands gently turning her around as her father pulled her into a hug, and she went gently to avoid creasing the coronation dress wrapped around her, that felt like discount cotton. _Don't shake. Don't cry._

"I'm so sorry Elsa," King Agdar whispered into his daughter's ear, one hand wrapped around her and the other holding onto the cane that kept him standing. Only one cane. It was a good day. "If there was a single thing I could do, I would do it in a heartbeat. But Arendelle needs a ruler."

"Arendelle _has_ a ruler," Elsa whispered back, "A really, _really_ good one."

"It needs a ruler who can stay conscious for more than a few hours a day, and who can remember a conversation with more than twenty words in it. It needs a ruler who can sign their name to a piece of paper legibly, without tearing it into shreds or."

She hugged her father, gently, like he would break under her. The daddy of her childhood, strong and dependable and always there when she scraped her knee or had a bad day at school, had been torn down and replaced with a wraith.

 _What?_ Elsa had said when he had told her, three years ago.

 _They're not…quite…sure what it is. Sometimes close to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, sometimes closer to MS,_ her father had replied, and the look in his eyes had made her panic even before he had went on to explain. _It's…not well-understood. The doctor only really use them as a comparison because nothing else makes sense, but the symptoms are roughly similar to both._

 _I don't understand,_ Elsa had replied. She knew her father had been seeing the royal physician more than the usual yearly check-ups and colds. Knew he had been rising a little later and going to bed a little sooner. Knew that Gerda had taken on more responsibility, but that was nothing serious. Nothing really worth getting worried about. She had refused to understand at first. Had insisted. He worked too hard, he needed to leave _more_ to Gerda and the ministers. He just needed a short holiday, take mother away to the Caribbean for a few weeks. He needed to not stay up at all hours of the night.

_I need to ask you to do something Elsa. Something I didn't want to ask you for a long time._

And because Elsa loved her parents so much she had said _I'll do anything just tell me,_ and in the three years between saying those words and putting a crown on her head she had torn her soul in two. Because even though she loved her father, a part of her bitterly, bitterly regretted that she had said them.

 _Elsa, I need you to grow up just a little faster,_ her father had said. _If I get any worse I may have to seriously consider…stepping down._

_What?_

_Abdication, Elsa._

And the paths that Elsa had planned for her life had suddenly shrunk, and vanished. The woodland mosy trails and carefully-ordered architectural paths of her hopes and dreams had been replaced with a single heavy paved road that covered and buried them all forever and led to only one place. She had put her geometry and architectural books away and replaced them with dusty tomes of law. The time she spent travelling to the free clinic she had helped build, to the school and orphanage she had given time and funding to, was replaced by meetings with ministers and sub-ministers about Arendelle's relationships with other countries and the exact state of her home's industries and GDPs. Her music tutor had been paid for her time and told there simply wasn't room in the schedule, and the small group of friends she had fought tooth and nail to make at college drifted away inexorably as she had to say _sorry but I can't find the time_ again and again until they had simply stopped phoning.

She had always known she would inherit one day. She had even looked forward to it. Her father was young and healthy, and there was so much time between now and that far-off day, time enough to live her own life, before she put on the crown and robes and lived for her country. Now it felt all those moments she could have had were cut from her timeline, and the life she could have lived in them had been thrown out with them. She should have been forty, or fifty, when she finally wore the crown. Not twenty-one.

Between Elsa the Girl and Elsa the Queen there was supposed to have been an Elsa the Woman, who would now never exist.

"I'm not ready," she whispered into her father's chest. "It's too much."

"Your mother and I are still right here with you," he replied quietly, and Elsa didn't know if it was because he wanted to be as quiet as her or because he simply couldn't talk any louder.

"Your majesty? Your highness? The carriage is here."

Elsa pushed her father away looked at the man in his ceremonial dress and felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. A twenty-minute carriage ride – still a carriage by tradition, even in the cold of winter – was all that separated her and _it_ now. There would be a short ride through the city, the streets lined with cheering crowds for their girl-princess, and finally she would draw up to the castle and walk the long red carpet. The old man who had been the head priest since her grandfather's time would put _it_ on her head, and that would be it. She would be Queen Elsa the Second, of Arendelle.

"You have to be strong Elsa," her father asked, his free hand still on her shoulder. She could still feel it vibrating slightly there and had to clench her hands into fists to resist the urge to shrug it off. _What are you, and what have you done to my daddy?_ "Please. For me, for your mother, for everyone."

She took a deep breath and steeled herself, her nails biting into her palms, drawing blood the same way they had ever since he had told her about his disease. Ever since her destiny had been brought out of a nebulous future and shoved into her hands _right now._

 _Do it for them._ "Of course father," she said, her voice as strong as she could make it. Not steel, yet. Maybe not even iron. But she got the words out and her voice didn't shake as she stood there in front of the mirror, and a strange girl in royal robes too big for her stared back with terror hidden in her heart.

Agdar smiled as he looked down at her, and didn't see the fear there. "See? You can do it. I believe in you."

She didn't dare respond. She turned carefully, to stop the robe behind her from tangling, and walked out of the drawing room. The cloak was heavy, and every step forward felt like it took monumental effort.

_It's too soon._

* * *

"Oh my god," Kristoff blurted out as the doors closed behind them. Marshall gave him a dirty look. "Sorry sir."

Elsa turned to the head of her security detail. "Marshall, can you go and check with Steffen that everything else is ready?"

Marshall wasn't fooled for a second. "Of course your majesty," he said, and strode off to find the rest of the entourage that had already arrived with the clothes and accessories for the weekend, and the gifts for the various dignitaries Elsa planned to meet, and all the rest of the metric tonnage involved when a head of state met with members of a foreign government off their home soil. He didn't mind being sent away. It wasn't proper for Kristoff to have such a…personal…relationship with his primary, but Marshall had been in Elsa's security since her father, and he wasn't going to begrudge the young royal a friend.

Kristoff waited a few seconds until after the door was closed and his boss was a safe distance away. When he was finally sure Marshall's preternatural senses wouldn't detect him, he snorted derisively and looked around the main hall of the 'house'. "But seriously, what the hell?"

Oh lord, it really was dire. When Duke Weselton had offered her the use of the place for the weekend's activities, she had expected something similar to her own family's summer residence back in Arendelle; something smaller and more personal than the official castle, more relaxed. This place was anything but that. Presumably Weselton had told the designer he wanted a mansion, but smaller, and they had…compromised. Everything had simply been shrunk to fit, and the rest had been filled in what someone imagined a 'mansion' should look like. The grand staircase leading from the main foyer to the second floor was barely wide enough for two people to walk up side-by-side. There were actual pillars in the middle holding up…well…nothing really. She could look up at the ceiling and see ornate gold wiring twisting around the wooden decorations. Styles clashed from one wall to the next, cherubs and gargoyles fighting for space on the pillars and the tops of the walls. There was even…oh god no…there was even a mounted lion's head halfway up the grand staircase, looking out over the doors. At least it wasn't a portrait of Duke himself. Elsa might have died laughing.

"Is this like Ikea on an unlimited budget?"

"Be nice Kristoff," Elsa said, trying not to grin and failing.

"I'm just saying, this is what three-star hotels look like when they're trying too hard."

Elsa climbed the steps and examined the walls as she went. Pictures of Weselton dotted the walls, all of them with a convenient brass plaque attached to the bottom of the frame saying who everyone in the picture was. Duke with old politicians posed over a dead lion in a valley somewhere. Duke at a table drinking with actors. Duke in a severe formal suit and a heavy gold chain among a group of…of…she had no idea what Rotarians were.

It was called an 'I Love Me' wall and it was designed to intimidate and awe the looker with the power and influence the owner wielded. She'd met several people who had them, but usually when people tried to awe her she held a singular huge advantage over them; she was an actual queen. Probably by the end of this weekend there would be a new picture up on the wall that read DUKE WESELTON AND HRM ELSA ARENDELLE.

She opened the door on a room that looked like it would have been owned by a decadent French king, if they had liked their rooms half-sized. She was too tired from the trip to complain though. She fell back on the bed, looking up at the ceiling in a distinctly un-queen-like manner. Back at home her dog would already have been clambering over her and licking her face with excitement, but here there was no such luck. Maybe she would just sleep until-

"Your majesty?" Kristoff's voice sounded from the other side of the door. "The briefers are here."

_Rats._

Kristoff knocked before entering, followed by two of her entourage. Steffen Erikson, a well-kept man of about thirty who just neat and tidy and didn't have a single blonde hair out of place, just like the rest of the ushers back home, who had won the rock-paper-scissors tournament to go on the trip. Arendelle castle had dozens of them with various job who helped take care of herself and the staff, and they all seemed to be printed out from the same template. Next to him was one of her Deputy Press Secretaries whose name she couldn't quite recall, her actual Press Secretary kept home ill with something unmentionable and horrible back in Arendelle. She herself looked more than a little nauseous, although whether that was travel sickness or having to brief the queen Elsa couldn't tell.

"Your m…majesty," the young black-haired girl said, clutching a binder to her chest like a ward against evil. Elsa looked at grey eyes that probably would have been quite pretty had they not been wide as dinner-plates and possibly about to burst into tears. "I have the plans for the party here from Mr Weselton. The err…the…"

"The guest list," Steffen helpfully supplied, not helping with the young woman's nervousness. Elsa was staring directly at her, and those incredibly blue eyes were a little off-putting to a woman barely out of her teens who'd never met the queen before except a glimpse through her boss's door. Her name was Marie and she was only here because her boss Eva had been dead on her feet and practically dissolving in her office. Marshall had ordered the woman home as a biological hazard, and now here Marie was, her first trip overseas.

"The guest lists!" she yelped, bringing out a small sheaf of paper. She didn't drop it, but it was a close thing.

"Guest lists _plural_?" Elsa asked, watching in fascination at the young woman who seemed to be actually vibrating in front of her. "I assumed the event would be just Weselton and his associates and us…"

"Ours and the Americans. Ummm. He seems to have invited a few other people…" Marie said, and handed over the sheet. Sheets.

Oh dear. "This looks like half of the US Congress," Elsa said, annoyed. "And a little of the senate." She saw more names. "And a pretty good slice of Hollywood too!" She had hoped for a quieter gathering, where she could work on Weselton with a little more privacy. With a list like this there was no way that was possible. She scanned the list and handed it to Kristoff.

The blonde man did his own examination. "Oh, I've seen his movie. I wonder how tall he is in real life. Hmmm. Probably want to keep you away from her, bad associations with drugs. I have no idea who that is. Bloggers? Seriously?" He looked up. "Marshall will be furious. We should have brought more of the detail," he said.

Elsa sighed, furious for a whole different reason. What, was she going to be just one more big name and pretty smile to add to his wall? She had come for a serious reason about serious business and he damn well knew it, how _dare_ he try and pass her off as some kind of trophy to display! "Who's coming as press?" she asked.

Kristoff frowned but flipped through the pages anyway. He reeled off a list of names and organisations, but Elsa didn't recognise any of them. A lot of them ended in 'dot com'.

"Most of them are entertainment bloggers," Marie said when she finished the list.

"Any _real_ reporters?" Elsa knew it was a small prejudice, but she couldn't help it. She'd grown up spending Sunday mornings sitting ather father's knee as he flipped the huge broadsheets. It had been soothing, and he had always taken what they said so seriously. _Those_ were news. Not a guy with a camera-phone and a website.

"Pabb- Patrick Anderson. He's a freelancer but he's trustworthy, and he only writes about the hard stuff. Government and so on," the black-haired woman said.

"Make sure we find a reason to bump into him." If Weselton wanted her in tabloids she'd make it a _little_ hard.

"Yes ma'am," Marie said.

The three were eclipsed by the black monolith that was Marshall walking into the room. "Your majesty."

"We're going to be late to the party Marshall," Elsa told her chief of security. _And i_ f Weselton wanted to use her as some kind of decoration like you would order a Christmas tree online she was going to be delivered late and with a hefty customs fee.

"As you say."

Elsa stood. "Let's go see the wardrobe. Did everything arrive on time?"

"It's all there ma'am."

"Excellent. Marie, if you would?"

The young woman's eyes opened even wider, if that were possible. Elsa wondered if Kristoff put a hand on top of her head to steady her, would the whole house shake to the ground. "M-m-m-m…ma'am?"

"I can't get into this thing on my own, I'll need some help preparing, and you can brief me as I change."

She nodded quickly, sending ripples down her long straight hair. "Of course ma'am."

 _Tonight will be a good night,_ Elsa thought, gesturing Kristoff out of the room and undoing the first button of the ill-fitting suit.

_A good night._

* * *

Elsa looked up in absolute shock from the piece of paper in her hands at the woman in the severe green dress stood before her. "Are you _certain_?"

"Yes your majesty"

She blinked, and looked down, then back up. " _Really_ certain?"

"We're really certain, ma'am."

"Are-"

Gerda cut her off before Elsa could ask a couple more times. "It's been confirmed by cores taken from three different places, by ground-penetrating radar, by spectrographically analysis from three locations different from the previous three. The report is real."

Elsa scanned down the list. Some she recognised immediately, some her old science education was tickling at the back of her head that she should know, and more than a few she suspected that scientists had just strung some syllables together for a laugh. That was one column. The second column was called 'Est T (met)'. She looked back up at Gerda.

"Estimated Tonnage. Metric. Taken as an average," Gerda said gently. "It could be much less, but the samples taken so far are consistent, and the company is very good at what they do. It's probably more or less correct, give or take a few tons."

Gerda watched the young royal as she stared down at the piece of paper, handling it like it was glass. Gerda Folstad had served as Chief of Staff for His Royal Majesty Agdar Arendelle for two decades, and had fully intended to go on serving him for two decades more before…before the illness had made that impossible. After that it had only seemed…well…natural, to go on serving the next ruler. She had watched Elsa grow up after all. When the king had called her into his private quarters the day before the coronation, she knew she would have to when he asked. Her heart wouldn't allow the poor girl to suffer alone.

_She's strong. She'll be stronger. But right now I think if you touched her she would shatter. Please Gerda, help my daughter._

_Of course your majesty._

Now here she stood, looking down at Elsa as the young queen – the youngest queen in the history of the country – sat at her father's desk, in her father's private study, and held a piece of paper in her hands that told her Arendelle was rich. She looked so overwhelmed, it was heart-breaking.

"The gold seam is only part of the find your majesty," Gerda said, gently turning the page a sit lay on Elsa's desk. "There's a considerable amount of silver there, and various other useful ores."

Elsa looked at the second column. She couldn't picture how much that was. "What else?" she asked.

Several of the names in the first column were circled, one of them quite insistently, and Gerda tapped at them with a finger. "Those are rare earth metals ma'am. Quite valuable."

Elsa looked at two near the middle, whose circling was in red and actually eclipsed several other elements around it, the person had circled it so enthusiastically. One she recognised and stared up at Gerda with her mouth open. " _Uranium?_ "

"Confirmed, and quite a lot of it. I assume you are familiar with the applications."

 _Oh god._ "And Rhodium?"

Gerda rattled off a list of uses that made Elsa's head spin. She felt a splitting headache descend on her. "This is…"

"It's a treasure trove," the old woman said gently, seeing Elsa put her head in her hands and knowing that maybe unbridled joy and elation would probably not be the best reaction right now. "Most of it is simply wealth, but some of it…well…the uranium especially, we can use to kick-start whole new industries if we keep it in the country. And of course with some of the rare earth metals it's not _just_ the fact that they're valuable in themselves. Several of them have reserves and mines only in China or others places that are, not to put too fine a point on it ma'am, prone to 'upheaval'. Most likely we could ask for slightly more than market price to compensate for a friendlier source with less chance of disruption. Easier delivery overland and etcetera."

"Who knows?" the young queen asked.

"Myself. You, ma'am. The scientists who tested the core samples of the rare metals and the operators of the machinery who uncovered the gold seam originally. A surveyor who confirmed the silver."

"And who will they tell?"

"They're contracted to secrecy as standard ma'am." Gerda saw Elsa give a small smile, and smiled back. "This of course means that the head of the site will know by the end of today when his men tell him. Duke himself a day later depending on the vagarities of timezones. Various governments two days to a week from now, accounting for bureaucracy."

"Oh god," Elsa said, probably without being aware she had. She looked out of her window at the great North Mountain. It was so old and so a part of Arendelle that it didn't even really have a name. When you said 'the mountain' people simply knew what you were talking about. From this angle, from the castle and the city next to it, it was still pristine. On the other side though men and machinery toiled away as gently as they could on the lower slopes beneath the ring of forest – _nobody_ would have countenanced digging up the actual mountain itself – and now a piece of paper had come through to her saying that the same mountain that had loomed over her country and home all her live could make Arendelle rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

Suddenly she felt it again, that pressure. The crown was under lock and key but she could still feel it pressing down on her head. _Everything else and now this!?_

"Congratulations, your majesty," Gerda said.

Whatever Elsa's reply would have been never happened, because at that second there came a quiet knock at the door.

"Enter," Gerda said instantly, then winced as Elsa glared at her. "Sorry ma'am."

" _Come in_ ," Elsa said, maybe a little harsher than she needed to.

The woman who came through the door was the opposite of Gerda. Where Elsa's Chief of Staff dressed in severe dark dresses, almost like a head maid out of one of those English dramas her mother liked, Evangeline Voll wore suits that reminded Elsa of the young successful lawyers on the American dramas that _she_ liked, and she had the long brown hair and deep brown eyes to match the impeccable pantsuits she wore, as well as the figure to fill them. Gerda had hired her after old Gunnar, her father's Press Secretary, had retired to spend more time with his family (not a euphemism, he really had) and she had proved outstanding in the position despite her age.

Eva brushed long brown hair out of her eyes. "Apologies ma'am," she said in a voice that could enchant all on its own. "Duke Weselton of Weselton Mining and Commerce has contacted me through the local United States embassy, wondering if you could make some time for him."

Gerda and Elsa shared a look.

"Well, maybe a little faster," Gerda said with a shrug.

* * *

"Duke Weselton."

"Virginia. Weselton Mining and Commerce, Weselton Agriculture and Plastics. A bunch of others."

"Nathan Rockford."

"Dakota. Titan Heavy Machinery."

"Richard Stone."

"Senior senator from Texas."

"Umm…"

"Wait, no! Congressman."

"Briar Rose."

"Wait, really? Oh, err…singer. European, but don't ask from where. Weselton really does like the attention doesn't he?"

"Anna Summerford."

"…Nope."

"Junior congresswoman from Texas."

Elsa frowned as she examined herself in the bedroom's mirror. "I had Leif Westergard on my cheat-sheet."

"Umm…sorry ma'am, that was an old one from before the last election. Ms Summerford replaced him and..."

She shrugged. These people came and went. She wondered sometimes how anyone got anything done in the country. Her father had spent a decade dragging Arendelle to a place where maybe, slightly, ever so reluctantly they were prepared to consider one day possibly tapping Arendelle's natural wealth just a tiny bit. Maybe. How was four years or six years' time enough to do anything at all?

"Wow."

"What?" Elsa asked at Marie's exclamation.

"She's only a few years older than me. Two years in office and she's twenty-seven. She must have beat him the absolute earliest she could run."

 _The same age as me._ The thought made her a little sad, and Elsa couldn't figure out why. She adjusted her dress. She had asked for it specifically. _This_ was what she liked, that old suit could go burn in a fire somewhere. White and blue, snowflakes and crocuses. It was one of her favourite gowns. When she put it on she imagined if she closed her eyes she could feel a slight chill, and smell the beautiful flowers from her home.

She made sure that her torso was between herself and Marie when she took the patchy old gloves off and put on the silk ones. "How long?"

"A limo should be pulling up soon," her deputy said.

There was a knock at the door. "Enter."

Kristoff walked in and took one look at her, and smiled. "Your majesty."

" _Mr_ Bjorgman."

"Your chariot has arrived."

She held up a gloved hand. "Lead on."

The rest of her security detail as already waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. To their credit, only one of them stared, although several were already wearing dark glasses, so maybe they were just hiding it. Marshall glared at Kristoff again, who let go of Elsa's arm as her heels reached the last step, and went to stand by his boss.

"Gentlemen," Elsa said, checking to make sure her braid was tucked in. "Let's go."

* * *

Clearly the party was already in full swing as Elsa's limo and her security's flanking cars drew up to the mansion, almost an exact copy of the smaller 'house' she just left. She would have to resist the urge to ask Duke why on earth he'd built a smaller version of his home only a few miles away.

Bigger though, the effect _was_ much, much better. She could hear laughing coming from beyond the gates, and in the night the entire towering edifice glowed. She took a deep breath, checked the tiara on top of her head – she hadn't worn the crown in the end, it seemed…too much – and as delicately as she could stepped from the limo.

And was blinded, instantly.

"Your majesty!"

"Queen Elsa!"

"Hey, queen!"

"Kristoff, please," Elsa whispered, not wanting the first thing she did at Weselton's mansion to be cowering and holding her arms up defensively against arrogant reporters. Without another word the flashes lessened, and Elsa walked forward as Kristoff and the others gently but firmly opened a path between the cars and the front door. Elsa climbed the stairs as gracefully as she could in heels, to see someone stooped and thin already waiting there for her.

"Your _majesty,_ " Duke Weselton said, bowing so low Elsa wondered if he'd actually be able to stand back up again.

 _You couldn't have helped me just a little with that melee?_ "Mr Weselton, a pleasure," she said with a smile, holding out her hand, which he bent down _again_ to kiss. Good lord the old man would do himself an injury. Wasn't he eighty-something? "I've been looking forward to this all week."

"Not as much as _I_ have, I can _assure_ you, your majesty," Weselton said with a flourish, still holding her hand as the phone-cameras clicked and whirred.

 _There, you have your picture for your wall._ "Shall we?" she said, gesturing past her into the heart of the mansion.

"By all means. We've been _eagerly_ awaiting your arrival," the old man said.

_I bet you have._

* * *

They had. Weselton wasted no time. Elsa had barely managed to say hello to a dozen people when a nameless servant appeared at Kristoff's side and whispered something in his ear. She watched from the corner of her eye as he nodded and came towards her, his place by the door instantly replaced by another member of the detail.

"Ma'am."

"Kristoff."

"Mr Weselton says that he'd be honoured if you would join himself and some associates for a drink, in a more private part of the mansion."

She felt butterflies in her stomach. _Finally._ "Tell him I'd be delighted."

"Bjorgman I'll take it from here. Take your break," Marshall said. Kristoff nodded, and headed off towards the gardens, as Marshall stood by her side and acted as a human shovel to clear a path after the servant.

And then suddenly the dim around her was gone, and the harsh lights and flashing cameras were removed, as Elsa stepped after Marshall and the doors closed behind her with a soft _click_.

She looked around at the 'more private part' of the mansion. No ostentatious gold or decorations here, no mounted deer heads of ludicrous indoor fountains. The wallpaper was a simple deep red, and the few couches and chairs scattered around the room were leather, old and well-worn. The tables were all well-polished oak, and Elsa could smell smoky wood and a hint or whiskey in the air, coming from the small bar in the far corner of the dark room. It reminded Elsa of her father's private drawing-room. This was a room for old rich men to relax in and drink. Even the electric lights looked antique. In her white-and-blue ensemble, Elsa was the brightest thing there.

"Your majesty, I've said it before but I still mean it, it's a _pleasure_ to have you here," Duke Weselton said, approaching her.

"Here here."

She looked around to see who else had spoken. Half a dozen people were dotted on couches around the room, and stood respectfully as she noticed them. To a man – no, sorry, Elsa could see more than one woman standing in the room too – they were old, or at least middle-aged. No young venture capitalists or Silicon Valley moguls tonight. This was old money. She didn't recognise a single one of them, and _that_ was how she knew that regardless of how many senators, congressmen and rich movie stars were in the mansion tonight, these people were _real_ power.

The power to give her what she needed.

"My I present my associates," Duke said, and gestured to the newest and cleanest looking seat. "Please. Would you like a drink?"

"Just some water please." Elsa sat and felt leather squeak under her as Weselton motioned for the bartender to pour. She took a deep breath, and spoke. "To what do I owe this, Mr Weselton?"

"Just Duke, please, I insist! And the question is, what can we do for _you,_ your majesty?"

She just smiled and sipped on the offered water, as Duke began to talk.

* * *

It was just over an hour later when she came back out of the room, feeling twice as exhausted as when she had walked in, so much so that she almost grabbed at Marshall to keep from tripping in her heels.

_God, the nerve of them!_

"Your majesty?" Marshall whisper-rumbled.

She reached up to run at tired eyes, remembering at the last second she was wearing makeup. How tiresome. At least the crowd inside the mansion hadn't noticed yet, and she had come out in a reasonably secluded spot. Marshall was a little…large…though, and would be noticed soon. "Get me outside please," she whispered, and he must have heard her over the noise of the party because he just nodded, and started his human shovel routine until Elsa felt cool night air flowing across her face and dress. She wanted to wipe her face but she didn't want to risk ruining her gloves and having to take them off where people might…might notice.

"Your majesty."

 _Oh god, what now?_ she thought as she turned to see- Oh. Not another one of Weselton's lackeys, and he didn't look like one of the pap either, who all seemed to be at the other end of the mansion trying to get a picture of that young singer. The man stood in front of her was far less well-dressed, his suit greying and faded in patches, and instead of a camera or a phone he held a small battered notebook.

"Patrick Anderson," he said, and went to put a hand out. She shook it. "I heard that I should expect you during the night."

 _So this is 'Pabbie'._ What a strange nickname. She wondered how he'd gotten it. "Mr Anderson, hello. Yes. Yes, I did." Drat. Her encounter with Weselton and his cabal had drained her more than she had thought. She felt scattershot, like her brain was spread outside of her skull.

Pabbie looked at her askance for a second. "If this is a bad time I can always make an appointment through your office for later."

She smiled, the first real one she'd given since she had arrived. "That's sweet of you to ask, thank you, but I'm fine." And she really did feel just a little better, now she seemed to have met someone with a soul. "I heard you had questions."

The notebook was flipped open, and in his other hand there was a cheap biro. "If you'd allow it."

"Lead on, but outside please."

_The nerve of those old fossils!_

She pushed it out of her head. She could fret and worry once she was out of his hot and sweaty hellhole and back in her home, where even if the weather was a little extreme you could fend it off reasonably easily. She focussed on the questions Pabbie was asking as she walked. Nothing hard or taxing, designed to catch her off guard. Pabbie asked how she was liking the US, and what she hoped to do, and she found herself answering easily.

When the greying man in the greying suit had finished, she smiled again, and waved as he went off, muttering into his notebook.

"Ma'am."

"Kristoff. That was a good idea. Where are they hiding reporters like that these days? Why can't more of them ask actual questions instead of just shouting?"

"Because those questions don't get page-views or sell yearly subscriptions," he said, touching her lightly on the elbow and guiding her behind a bush as a man in a much _more_ expensive suit and a very large phone indeed walked past them towards the mansions, barely looking up from his screen to notice he'd just missed the Queen of Arendelle. Thank god for small favours. The drink seemed to have done its work on the assembled masses and most of the action seemed to have moved inside, where the tables were still fairly well-stocked and the comfy chairs where. The garden, previously incredibly busy and almost stifling, was now actually bearable, and Elsa found herself able to really see them for the first time since she had arrived.

"Kristoff."

"Elsa?" he replied.

"Walk with me."

* * *

The gardens _were_ beautiful, on that she'd give Weselton credit.

Elsa moved through them easily, relishing in the cool air on the breeze and the grass tickling her feet over her heels. She ran a hand across the ornate stonework that filled one half of the garden and watched the soft light and heat play across her dress from the eastern side as the soft gravel of the paths crunched underfoot. A few people were still out there, people she recognised from her cheat-sheets and people she didn't, and if they recognised her back most just gave a small nod or bow. Much classier than the free-for-all scrum of cameras and false joviality back inside the mansion. From halfway down the garden, stood on a small stone bridge, she could look back and see it. Hear it too. If she turned around and looked to the back of the massive gardens, it was like another world. Softer, quieter. She- huh.

"What's that?" she asked.

Kristoff strained his eyes. "A lake?"

"Above it."

"Some kind of…small castle?"

"Let's take a look."

"Your majesty, I'd really prefer it if we went back to the rest of the detail."

"I'd really prefer not to."

Kristoff glanced around, just to make sure no-one else was in range. "C'mon Elsa, don't get me in trouble with Marshmallow."

She snorted. "I'll deal with him. Come on." Kristoff just shook his head, and followed.

Up close it was even better, and Elsa wondered if she could get something similar back home. The lake went all the way to the back of the gardens, where the lawn seemed to drop off a cliff to nothing, and beyond it she could see an honest-to-god forest, just like the one back in Arendelle. She ran a hand over the wooden bridge that led to the gazebo that seemed to almost levitate above the surface of the pool, and stepped on it. She could feel her dress grazing the damp wooden surface, but didn't care.

The inside was like the fairy-stories her mother had used to tell her as a child, what she imagined a witch's cottage would be like, all crawling vines and moonlight streaming in from the huge arched window-frame. Kristoff stood quietly next to the entryway to watch for approaching intruders, leaving Elsa alone as she put her hands on the balcony, and looked out. It was breath-taking. If the forest that surrounded the North Mountain was like a wall that separated man from nature, the pure Virginian forest that stood past Weselton's estate was…was nature itself. It seemed to go on forever, undulating up and down as it went all the way to the horizon. Looking out from the frame it was hard to imagine humanity existed at all past it. It is…pristine. She could have stared at it for hours. Might have, too, were it not for a single surprised word spoken by her bodyguard.

"Anna?"

"Kristoff?" a female voice replied, and Elsa turned to see who it was intruding on her reverie.

She watched stock-still as Kristoff spoke as…someone…walked through the entryway that they had a little while ago. The moonlight in her peripheral vision and the shadows that coated the gazebo combined to make it hard to make out anything at all, and Elsa just watched as Kristoff interrogated them, certainly not in his normal manner. Who was it?

"Hello, again. You're a long way from the party," he said.

"I could say the same thing about you," the shadow replied. Her voice sounded a little surprised but not shocked. After Weselton's false old-man camaraderie and the various voices of the dark _cabal_ that had sat in judgement of her, it sounded…nice. Melodious, even. "I needed some air from…well…from all that," it said.

Kristoff looked back to the party, still going on back at the mansion. "I can understand that."

"Speaking of which if you're out here, you're a long way from your boss aren't you?"

Kristoff's eyes glanced at Elsa, who just kept watching as her security talked with this strange American woman. "Umm. Not really?"

Apparently though she had caught him glancing away. "Kristoff? Is someone there?" She stepped forward, further into the gazebo, and at the same time Elsa moved just a little, so that the moonlight streamed past her and onto the stranger, and the light glinted from green eyes, and she met Congresswoman Anna Summerford.

* * *

"Hello."

"Hi."

Kristoff looked from one to the other and sighed. "Ma'am this is Congresswoman Anna Summerford of the United States. Anna, this is her majesty Queen Elsa, of Arendelle."

She was…she looked so _vivid_. That was the first word that popped into Elsa's head as she looked at her. Deep red hair framed freckled cheeks and teal eyes that reminded Elsa of the pure clean waters that flowed down the North Mountain past the castle and fed into the ocean. The freckles continued down her neck until her dress hid anymore. Something that could have been silk or velvet, but a gorgeous deep green that hugged the woman's curves and then fanned out into a ruffled curtain that shifted as she did and made her look like a tame ocean flowed around her waist. Wait, were those… "Crocuses?" Elsa whispered, staring at the thin strip of materiel that circled around the woman's neck and shoulders, keeping the dress up seemingly by magic.

The woman – Anna – blushed, and Elsa watched fascinated as her freckles darkened and her eyes darted around, looking at anything but Elsa. "I've been telling people they're bluebonnets," she said.

"They're my country's national flower," Elsa said. "It's very pretty." She stepped forward, and before she even thought about it she was running a finger across that thin strip of material, looking at- _Oh god!_ Elsa grabbed her hand back from Anna's as fast as she could without tearing anything mortified at what she had done. She felt herself blushing now, and turned away at the same time as Anna did and they both found something very interesting to stare at in the woodwork.

Anna was the one who broke the silence. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she said, looking at the same endless vista of trees that had enraptured Elsa only minutes – god, was it only minutes – before.

"It is," Elsa said, looking herself, and she could feel the sadness in her own voice. It reminded her of home, somewhere she desperately wanted to be after meeting with _those people._ She wanted to visit her father's sickbed, wanted to hug her mother and feel her kiss her forehead. Wanted to listen to Gerda and Eva bicker about protocol, and feed the horses in the stables.

"I'm glad we could show you something that did. Remind you of home. That is," Anna said, stuttering over her words. "Have you been having a good night?"

Maybe it was the sudden longing for home, or maybe it was the frustration over the last hour of the night. Whatever it was, when Elsa replied she did so totally honestly. "Hardly."

_Elsa, you are a huge idiot._

When she dared to glance at the other woman, she found deep green eyes looking into her own. They were captivating. "You want to know a secret your majesty?" she asked, almost whispering.

"What?" Elsa replied, just as quietly.

"Me neither," Anna Summerford said, and smiled.

And just like that, like a dam inside her bursting and washing away the rot and darkness, Elsa was laughing, and she couldn't stop. She kept looking at Anna, who just smiled, and she knew she should feel more than a little silly. She was a queen, an absolute monarch, and now here she was standing next to a foreigner and laughing like a schoolgirl. Finally, after what felt like minutes of giggles instead of seconds, she managed to get herself under control. "Thank you. I needed that."

"What are you doing here anyway?" Anna asked, turning over and leaning her back against the wooden railing. "Wouldn't have thought European royalty would find much to do at a party made primarily to liquor up old men and get re-election money and laws out of them."

Elsa suppressed the giggles again. "Well, I'm not an old man but I _am_ here for currency, of a sort. Goodwill."

"PR," they both said at the same time, and now they were _both_ laughing. Oh, god, she felt so much better. She had been prepared to go home angry, and frustrated, and wishing she had never came at all. Now she felt…light. She felt elated, even. And all thanks to just a few words from the red-haired woman who stood looking at her, with moonlight streaming past her face.

"I know that story. I need a whole bunch of it. Goodwill is like actual money in congress."

"You're the youngest, correct?" Elsa asked, the one single fact she had grabbed from Marie before the party had started. Thank god for a good memory.

"Well, not the youngest _ever._ William Claiborne will probably hold that award until the end of the world. Youngest currently." Anna hesitated for a second before saying her next words: "You, too."

 _Not by choice._ "Yes. It's a big bur- it's a big responsibility."

"I'd be glad that something like this could help with that, if only for a few days," Anna said, and gestured back at the party. Elsa kept her mouth shut. Anna was trying to cheer her up. Her, someone she didn't even know. Anna didn't need to hear about dark rooms of old men and women, and bad questions with worse answers. Elsa gave her a radiant smile and thought; _thank you._

Anna herself seemed to wrestling with saying something, and Elsa just waited, happy with the silence. It was just…it was _comfortable._ Something she hadn't felt in years. Not since she had lost all her old friendships to her new position. Just being around Anna as she talked, the light seeming to bounce and reflect from those amazingly deep eyes, was calming.

After three years on a lonely throne, Elsa had finally realised she desperately, desperately wanted to feel comfortable with someone her own age, who wasn't worried about offending her queen or being a subject.

She wanted a friend.

"If goodwill and PR is what we're both after, I don't see why we can't arrange something," the young congresswoman said.

Elsa had to suppress the desire to shout _YES_ at the top of her voice. "How?" she whispered instead.

Anna's eyes lit up even further, if that were possible. "Virginia's nice, don't get me wrong, but it isn't Texas. We'd love to show you around. Give you a real idea about what the south can be like. It isn't desert like in the movies, it has so much beauty." And on she went, about hiking and sports, and the food and theatre. History and culture and art. Elsa watched Anna as she talked and it was mesmerising. She loved her home and it came through in every word and hand gesture. Finally, it seemed like Anna ran out of virtues to extoll of the great state of Texas. She looked at Elsa. "I'm sure Arendelle is beautiful in the summer. I'd love to visit."

"It'd be a pleasure," Elsa said, and really, truly meant it so much. Something white burst with a soft _pop_ , and for a second she thought it was something inside her own head as she stared into Anna's face. Then there was another, and she felt her own vision dragged back to reality, and to the manor, where… "Wow."

Fireworks burst in the air over the gardens. One half white and blue over the western side, the other half gold and red over the east. It looked like the entire party had moved out into the gardens to watch, and the noise of the fireworks that burst above them seemed almost drowned out by the clapping from the ground.

"Duke, you throw a hell of a party," Anna whispered, as she watched, equally spellbound, leaning forward and putting her hands on the wooden balcony.

"Look," Elsa whispered, pointing up as a giant blue-white firework burst in a snowflake pattern above them, and put her own hands there too.

She was surprised, for just a second, as she felt the heat from Anna's hands underneath her own. She felt the breath catch in her throat, and almost jerked her hand away when she saw that Anna hadn't even noticed. Was enraptured by the incredible explosion of colour over the mansion. So she left her hand there, and watched with her.

Compared to those few minutes the rest of the night was…

Unremarkable.

* * *

"Did you have a good time?" Elsa asked, distracted by the sheets of paper on her table. She had asked Marie to provide them before they had taken off, and the nervous young woman had outdone herself.

"Yes ma'am," Kristoff replied, watching his boss from across the table. "The canapés were excellent."

She barely heard him though, as she sat cross-legged on her seat, free to throw off those awful suits now that they were a half-mile above any possible press. Unless the paparazzi had access to jets, which she found unlikely. Instead she tried to focus on the papers below her. Information she would need, the beginnings of an arsenal she had to assemble to deal with an attack she suspected was coming. She had to memorise notes about heavy digging machinery, and rare-earth processing. She had to memorise these notes about corporate law and ownership. She had to fight to ignore the map of Texas that had somehow found its way into the big pile of paper.

She almost managed it too, but then a big dumb blonde man opened his big dumb mouth.

"Congresswoman Summerford and I talked. She was very pleasant to me," Kristoff said.

"Anna?" Elsa asked quickly, more eagerly than she had intended to. "Yes, she was nice. She…she had some good ideas." _She had freckles all over her cheeks that blushed when she did._

"Should I tell the pilot to make a hard turn and head for Texas?" Kristoff asked, smiling at his ruler.

Elsa's eyes narrowed and she threw the pen she was holding at his head as she tried to control a blush of her own. "Quiet, you."

"Yes ma'am."

"But it's certainly something to think about," Elsa said. She laid her head back on the plush armrest and closed her eyes and thought about the party as she drifted off. She didn't see Weselton, or the tall cruel-looking woman with the thin lips that curled whenever she spoke, or the brutish Han Chinese man whose designer suit barely fit him, any of the other silent associates that Weselton had arranged around himself. Instead she saw a woman dressed in gorgeous greens with crocuses dotting her shoulders, red hair cascading around her shoulders and eyes like a tranquil sea. "Something to…think about," she mumbled, as comfy oblivion claimed her.

Elsa Arendelle dreamed of emeralds.

* * *

"Did it go well?"

"Hmmm?"

Anna knew she had an incredibly silly look plastered over her face, and that her Chief of Staff Kai was probably laughing at her inside his impenetrable skull, but she didn't care.

"I asked whether the weekend went well, _congresswoman_ ," Anna's Chief of Staff asked her.

"Oh! Yes! Yes, very well indeed." Anna was trying to think hard about that little job title, she really was. To DC for a few days to make sure her staff hadn't done anything silly like tried to secede, or introduced a bill banning chocolate, the back to Texas so she could check on the things she _really_ cared about: Her parents. Her home. How the schools that she had fought to secure funds for were using it. How the library she had donated money to keep from closing was doing.

She was really trying to, but it was hard. Her hands were playing with a small piece of fabric, a little scrap from the dress she had worn at the last minute to the party. It was from the shoulders, the thin piece of silk or whatever decorated with the flowers that had caught _her_ attention. Anna had thought about tossing it. It was trash, after all. But she hadn't, and since getting on the plane it hadn't left her hands. If she closed her eyes she could still see El- _Queen_ Elsa as her hands came forward to run along the fabric. She wondered what the hands were like under the gloves.

She looked out the window and smiled, but she wasn't seeing Virginia or Texas, or even any kind of terrain at all.

She was seeing blue eyes like sapphires, and a smile.


	3. Chapter 3

"Anna."  
  
"Hrhrgrgrm?"  
  
"Anna, you should wake up."  
  
"…Don't wanna."  
  
"You should also stop drooling on your desk, unless you really wish your eternal contribution to this hallowed government to be a drool-stain on wood."  
  
"Urgh."  
  
"Very well. Alice my dear, if you would open the door to the main corridor and let the press know the congresswoman is-"  
  
Anna's head leapt from the desk at roughly the speed of light, more commonly known in DC as the speed it took to stop a reporter snapping a picture of you looking dumb. "Alright, alright, I'm awake! I was just resting my head, jeez!"  
  
"You have an apartment and a bed. Both of them, I am sure, are far more comfortable than your office and this desk," Kai said, taking a handkerchief and handing it to Anna.  
  
"Dad bought me this desk," Anna said. It had been his single present when she had been elected. She would have been happy with nothing but a hug and a kiss and his congratulations, but it had been here waiting for her when she had arrived. Whatever wizardry he'd used to get it in here he wasn't sure but she loved it and didn't ask, for fear she'd get the cops on him. It was beautiful mahogany, polished to almost a mirror finish – she'd actually gotten a pretty bad bruise on her head once when she put her elbows on it and they slipped – and had enough room to let her stretch out underneath it and what felt like acres of space. It was a gorgeous desk and she loved it.  
  
Kai looked down at her rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Congresswoman, I hesitate to try and tell a grown woman how to act…"  
  
"Liar."  
  
"Very well. How much have you slept since you returned from Virginia?"  
  
"Well…"  
  
"No, I was speaking rhetorically. Let me tell you. After the plane landed you stopped by your apartment for a change of clothes. Upon finding one you said you just had 'a couple of things' to do at the office. When you got here you had coffee with the representative from Louisiana, at which point instead of returning home for the sleep you so desperately need you came back here."  
  
"I've slept," she complained, fingering the collar of her white shirt. The green ball-gown was back in her closet, and now she was in DC it was shirts-'n'-skirts all the way.  
  
"You've napped, in the car."  
  
"That counts."  
  
"Anna you do know that when you work, everyone else has to work."  
  
"I do, but…" Anna said, feeling just a little unjustly chastened. She knew that as a congresswoman she had a staff that had to, essentially, put their lives on hold for her whims, but what she was doing was important and-  
  
Kai checked to make sure the huge wooden door that separated her office from her staff's office was closed. "Anna I know you think you have to be 'on' all the time, but you're no good to the state if you die of exhaustion in office, or get brought up on a murder charge for working your staff to death."  
  
Anna smirked, just a little. "You do a pretty great impression of dad."  
  
"Technically, your father does an excellent impression of me," the rotund old man said carefully. "I first said it to him during his second campaign after he hired me, when his previous two chiefs had quit."  
  
Anna leaned forward. "Is that when you two first met?"  
  
"Don't change the subject, congresswoman."  
  
Anna stopped fiddling with the pen on the desk and leaned back in the chair. Unlike her desk it was straight out of a second-hand Officemax catalogue, and creaked. There had been a much grander – and much larger – leather seat, but Leif had taken that with him when he left. She definitely needed a new one, but she kept forgetting to mention it. There was just so much to do. "Alright, message received," she said, before Kai became any more insistent. "I'll listen."  
  
"I'm shocked."  
  
"Quiet you." She stood and strode to the door that separated her office from the staff, and poked her head around. "Alice?"  
  
"Hmmm?" The young blonde girl looked up from the papers she was absentmindedly filing. "Yes ma'am?"  
  
"Alice I've asked you not to call me ma'am a hundred times."  
  
"Yes ma'am." Alice nodded, dipping slightly as she did so.  
  
Anna had met Alice the first time she had been passing through Washington DC, when she was doing her great trip across the states. She had spent two whole weeks in DC, exploring every inch of the city, and of course she'd taken all the tours the tourists take. She had arrived at the US Capitol ready to drink up the ambience of where her father worked, and instead of the old stuffy tour guide she had remembered from when her father had taken them on family trips, the tour guide had been a woman who could have been the same age as Anna.  
  
Oh, that's Alice Liddell, her father had said months later when she had returned home.  
  
I didn't think they let British people work in the US Government.  
  
Hah! No, she isn't a limey, she's just stuffy enough to pass as one, when she isn't daydreaming.  
  
Please, dear.  
  
She's just a gopher for the building. I think she temps for anyone who needs her. Most people use her for a week and pass her along, she's a little touched when it comes to human interaction.  
  
DEAR!  
  
I thought she was polite.  
  
That's one word for it.  
  
When Anna had arrived at her new office she had enquired about the pretty young blonde thing she remembered from the last time she had been passing through. A week later Alice had arrived at her door with a note and a faint smile, and now she worked for Anna.  
  
And Alice was polite. To everyone. Everyone. People that would have had Anna climbing up the walls with frustration Alice could handle for hours without that little smile slipping an inch. Once an ornery old couple had visited demanding to see their representative, and Anna had hid in the office getting on with work while Alice listened as the old fogeys griped and moaned about God knew what.  
  
How do you do it? she had asked as Alice had handed her a cup of tea.  
  
My own little world, Alice had said, and hadn't explained further. She was quiet. She got on with her work like a machine and was friendly enough with the rest of the staff, but when she was alone Anna would catch her staring off out the window, that little smile on her face. Her own little world.  
  
"What do I have for the rest of the week?" she asked her chief of staff.  
  
Kai didn't need to check a rolodex or his phone. "Your committee meeting isn't 'til Tuesday, you have a lunch appointment with the teacher's union reps on Monday. You're clear 'till then."  
  
"Alice we're taking the rest of the…" She checked her watch. Thursday. Hmmm. You know what, Kai was right, why not? "…week away from the office. If you're done with those files you can close up and leave and I'll see you on Monday."  
  
"Yes ma'am," Alice said, and Anna would swear to God she curtsied.  
  
Kai watched his boss as she grabbed her coat. "Three whole days? I must say it's gratifying to have you finally listen to-"  
  
"Quiet you," Anna said, and reached for her phone.  
  
"Yes ma'am."  
  
"Oh don't you start that too or I'll send you right back home. Let daddy deal with you."  
  
"And what do you plan to do with your sudden spate of free time?" Kai asked, as Anna went for the door. "Dare I say you might get some sleep this week?"  
  
Anna turned her head back before she vanished from the door that separated her office suite from the rest of the capitol building. "Bet?"  
  
She took a deep breath of DC air. If this was a fairy-tale she would sigh happily at the gloriously clean air and skip away from the dreary old office building with a skip in her step. Since this was DC though she nearly choked on a cloud of exhaust, and the only skip she did was to escape a small puddle from the rain.  
  
"See you next week Geoff," she said to the capitol policeman at the gate. The sun was already coming down, which meant the cafes she liked were almost certainly closing. Smithsonian too, drat. There was an exhibit on public and experimental art she had wanted to get to all month and it was nearly over, drat. Well, she had all tomorrow now, assuming no horrible emergency happened. Maybe Kai was right and she should just get some sleep.  
  
Hours wasted Anna, her brain told her though. Maybe it wasn't entirely healthy but it was just the way she was. She saw hours in the day and she wanted to fill them doing something, and sleep was just…nothing.  
  
"See you next week congresswoman," the policeman said as she exited the grounds. That was another perk of taking the seat from Leif too. Other younger reps had to have their offices in Longworth or god forbid rent space from a nearby office, but Anna got to have hers in Cannon and she loved it. It was a gorgeous old building, right on the corner next to the Capitol itself, and her window actually looked out over her workplace and the amazing gardens around it. From the front door she was minutes from the Smithsonians, the National Art Gallery, everything she loved. It was perfect and she would fight to keep it, with knives and barricades if she had to. She'd hold off capitol police with a hat-stand to keep her office.  
  
Congresswoman. She wouldn't show it out here in public but sometimes she still felt like giggling at the word when she thought it. Congresswoman Anna Summerford. During the first couple of months she had pinched herself just in case she was dreaming.  
  
Hearing it out loud did it too.  
  
"Congresswoman.  
  
Like that, yes. She turned. "Hi Pabby."  
  
The old journalist – she knew he hated being called just a 'reporter' – smiled as he walked up to her out of the haze of evening smog. He was still dressed in the same natty old clothes she had seen him in at the airport in Virginia. "How's the night Anna?"  
  
Anna took a deep breath of…smog. "Fine."  
  
"How's the jetlag?"  
  
"What jetlag?" Anna asked, trying to look as innocent as possible.  
  
"I called your apartment and then when that didn't work I called your neighbours, they said you barely passed through. I called your office and Ms Liddell said you weren't to be disturbed. Sleeping at your desk?"  
  
"…Kai wouldn't let me."  
  
"Child, you know you'll last longer at this job if you tried to live and sleep like a normal person. You're not going to last your term at this rate."  
  
"I'm young, I can handle it."  
  
"Hmmm," said Patrick, and the breath caught in her throat. She only let it out when he kept speaking. "Well, you're not young forever. Look at Westergard, or Congressman Stone. Things look very different on the wrong side of forty, and coffee stops being a miracle cure."  
  
"One term at a time. I'll be careful Pabby, promise."  
  
"Attagirl."  
  
She looked up and realised that somehow without her noticing they had walked all the way past the Capitol, and across the street to the entrance of the Smithsonian complex. The street-lights pierced through the fog, the windows still lit in the buildings as the staff closed down for the night, the ancient stonework of the original buildings clashing with the additions of more modern wings and annexes over the years. Anna liked the contrast though. It reminded her that new history was always being written. Wait, writing? Ah, that was what had been bothering her. "Speaking of sleep Pabby…"  
  
"Aha. The penny drops."  
  
"What are you doing out here?" she asked, pulling her duffle around herself. Her mother's gift. It gets so cold down there dear, even in summer. "Aren't all real journalists supposed to be in bars by five-thirty, talking about the good old days?"  
  
"For me the good old days were a terrible hotel in Seoul and then a worse one in Kuwait. No, actually I wanted to speak with you."  
  
"About what?" Anna asked, instantly on guard. Pabby was looking at her oddly. She was used to being looked at oddly to be fair, but this time seemed a little different.  
  
"You really are out of the loop today, huh?"  
  
"Stop being mysterious," she said, and punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Yeah, so my sleep cycles are a little whacked out right now, what have I missed?"  
  
"It's late, I'll tell you tomorrow. If it's this bad you'll need some sleep just to handle it."  
  
"Pabby if this is something important-"  
  
"Tomorrow," Patrick Anderson said as he walked past her and began to vanish into the early evening mist. "Gaston's at ten. And keep your head down! And pick me up a paper!"  
  
"Don't you give stories to like, ten newspapers?" Anna shouted after him. "Get your own!"  
  
"With what they charge today?" Pabby said with a wink, and vanished into the DC fog.  
  
"Hey sweety."  
  
It wasn't a smoky old bar filled with reporters and grifters but it was the next best (or next worst) thing. So the story goes: A man named Gaston had made a quick exit from Germany back in the seventies (the seventeen-seventies that is) after getting on the wrong side of a local noble and his new wife, and had hopped a ship to the New World right as the New World had decided it didn't want to take its marching orders from the Old World anymore. He'd chosen the right side – after several changes of uniform, the story also went – and did pretty well for himself afterwards, being on the winning team and all. His sons had done even better for themselves, and blah blah blah and etcetera. The end of the story was Gaston's; an old-style bar and grill that looked like it had come straight out of the old country, all antlers on the walls and kegs behind the bar, with the menu heavy on the 'scorched protein' side of things, nary an organic salad in sight. But it was cheap and warm and – and this was the most important part – anyone with a government ID got a discount. Anna suspected that little largess wasn't exactly just about patriotism, but there were worse crimes than breaking a few zoning regulations and liquor-board laws, and bribes weren't always green and papery. Sometimes they were greasy and filled with carbs. There were a dozen employees from the capitol in the place at any hour of the day, and a few more from the big house itself. Stories also said sometimes more business had been done in Gaston's than in some actual congressional meetings.  
  
"Mmmmm, taste that. Fantastic," Pabby said through a mouthful of bacon and eggs with relish as Anna sat down on the old leather seat opposite him. At morning the place was only half-full, and she snuck in without being spotted, although why she thought she needed to she wasn't quite sure. When Pabby gave you a tip you listened.  
  
"Awful. Here." Anna slapped down the Times. "Got your paper." A waitress wandered over asking if she wanted anything, and she picked out something from the breakfast menu that looked the least greasy. No grease at all didn't seem to be an option here. Her father swore by this place and now she knew why.  
  
"Wrong paper," Pabby said gently, and slapped down his own. Anna took one look and groaned. "Well, maybe paper isn't the word I should have used, but I'm the forgiving type."  
  
"The Enquirer?" She knew it well enough. She'd been in it. Not the front page, but sometimes fourth or fifth, or a small thing beneath the fold. Maybe one day if she was lucky she would turn up in the centre-pages, probably in an article entitled 'Capitol Hotties, Yay or Nay?', with more pictures than words, and not very long words at that. The Enquirer sold at supermarkets and newsagents for barely more than the shiny paper it was printed on and specialised in gossip on anyone who had ever appeared on a screen of any kind. It was cheap and trashy and everything that came with the celebrity beat. It also sold more magazines than most broadsheets put together, and the online version had a page-view count right up there in the stratosphere. It was where good bloggers went after they died. "Seriously?"  
  
"Now now Anna, that's no way to speak about our colleagues in the rough side of the newspaper business."  
  
"It's sure rough attending garden parties and premieres." She noticed the look Pabby was giving her. "Sorry. What am I looking at?" she asked, not a little contritely, flipping through the pages. Most of the words this week seemed to be some combination of PREGNANT, DIVORCE, BABY, and CHEATING. No DRUGS though, must have been a slow week. Wait a second. She checked the date and then looked up at her old family friend. "This is the paper due to come out next Monday! How'd you get it on Friday?"  
  
"A friend, but that isn't important. Check the centre pages," the old reporter said, and went back to his sausage and bacon.  
  
She did, and when she saw what Pabby was clearly talking about had zero idea how to react. Well, she had her 'dream' a little sooner than she'd thought, and not some throwaway article. Centre pages and all.  
  
"That's a nice picture of you," Pabby said through a mouthful of grease.  
  
It was her, of course it was her.  
  
The picture was pretty clear for a tabloid camera, the man must have had some talent. It was a dark night, with stars in the sky and the entire picture being lit up like the moon. That would have been the fireworks. "Oh lord." Yep, there they were, lit up against the window. Anna could see every vine embedded in the wood, every branch and leaf, and in the centre the hole in the gazebo. She could see every detail, every fold and mark on the dress she had worn. She groaned. There was even a helpful little close-up of her dress, right on the bust, apparently showing off the small flowers embroidered on the fabric there, but also nicely showing off her cleavage. There were even some handy little arrows to point out…her freckles? Seriously? Assholes.  
  
"Oh just kill me now," Anna said, and shoved a forkful of waffles into her mouth. Oh, god, that was good though. No wonder her father had been a couple of pounds heavier every time he came home.  
  
"Nice picture of her, too."  
  
The centre-fold had let them be clever with the positioning. The fold in the magazine was right down the middle of the paper. Anna and her close-up pervshots on the right half of the fold, and her on the left side.  
  
Even in a cheap phone photo with bad light, Queen Elsa looked gorgeous. Anna could see the snowflake embroidered into the centre of her chest, a re-creation of it in a small box, no tit-shot for her, and more detailing every inch of the dress she was wearing. Scattered around the article were pictures of similar clothes and how much they cost, but she ignored it and was just looking at the headlines.  
  
"A Secret Rendezvous in a Secret Garden?"  
  
"I'd buy the man who made that title a drink."  
  
"Shut uuuuuup." She kept staring at the article.  
  
Diplomatic relations looks like it took a step forward this weekend at Duke Weselton's manor, as the rich and famous and powerful gathered together for a throw-down and hoe-down.  
  
"Oh my god."  
  
"Keep reading."  
  
The stars were out in full force and with plenty of dresses right here in these pages you can get the full story with pictures! But the most surprising hook-up of the night wasn't Briar Rose with any of the delicious mysterious secret service-men dotted like-  
  
"No, I can't do it."  
  
"Be brave Congresswoman."  
  
-dotted like studly killer Christmas lights among the trees. Our own newest and hottes member of congress Anna Summerford, that little rose of Texas, had a close encounter if not out of this world then certainly out of the country! The youngest and brightest of the good old USA looked like she was wandering the gardens out among the stars when she found her own.  
  
Queen Elsa Arendelle, looking fabulous as always. We didn't get a chance to speak with her but we did get pictures, and if a picture is worth a thousand words then the big one here must be worth a few hundred thousand. The brightest star in Europe right now enjoying a little break from the party with the prettiest flower out of the south.  
  
And right there in the centre of the pages, a little circle around their hands. At least this one had a question-mark on it. The bad camera and low angle meant you couldn't quite see if their hands were touching. Thank god. Who knows what the headline would have been if they'd gotten what had actually happened.  
  
Talk about diplomatic relations! If-  
  
And so on, and so on, until apoplexy. There were other pictures too on the next pages. The queen and Anna talking. The queen smiling at something Anna had said. Anna touching the edge of her dress as the queen said something. Oh jeez. The picture of them with their hands nearly-but-not-quite visible was the money shot though, and several paragraphs were devoted to it. The man who'd taken it had probably got a nice car for what the Enquirer paid him  
  
At least apoplexy would have spared her the embarrassment of having to put down the paper and look up at Pabby, her face burning as red as the hot stoves in the nearby kitchen.  
  
"So you met her then?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Me too," he said, and detailed an encounter of his own with the young queen of Arendelle. "She was very nice, very polite."  
  
"Yes, she…," Anna said, not thinking that at all. She remembered the laugh Elsa had given her when Anna had joked with her, remembered the smile Elsa had given her when they had talked and looked out over the gardens. She remembered the touch of her fingers at her shoulder-blades, and she remembered eyes like sapphires. "She was very polite."  
  
"Is that all you're giving me?" Pabby asked, sounding hurt. But Anna knew that act and she wasn't playing.  
  
"Oh come on. Why does a reporter of record care what a tabloid prints?"  
  
"Because I was messing with you earlier, you did bring me the right paper," Pabby said, and grabbed Anna's copy of the Times and opened it to the business section. "Read."  
  
She did, and gaped when she found what Pabby wanted her to see. "Oh my god." My, but she was saying that a lot this morning. She scanned down the headline, reading much the same names and numbers that a certain other young woman had read a week before. "Oh my god."  
  
"Remember how Saudi Arabia went from camels to Bentleys in two generations? Looks like there's about to be a repeat of that in the north. Bentleys to Teslas, maybe."  
  
Good for them! She was thrilled, Anna found out, after she had gotten over the shock. She didn't know jack about geology but the business editor had been very kind, and did some rough calcuaions. She was thrilled for Elsa. "That's incredible."  
  
"That's real news, and there's real interest."  
  
Anna put the paper down on the table where a corner accidentally touched a bit of bacon and turned transparent. "And that's nothing to do with me, so…"  
  
"Oh?" Pabby said, and his eyes gleamed. "Want to know how many people in the US government have talked to Arendelle in the last two years?"  
  
She hated that game. "No."  
  
Pabby knew it, and didn't tease her. He held up a splayed hand. "Five. The ambassador once when she accepted his credentials. The deputy ambassador at her coronation, once. Two tourists who we're pretty sure were wandering somewhere they were not supposed to be and were summarily kicked out of the country. And one more."  
  
Oh? OH! "I'm the only person who's met her, out of the whole American government?" Anna said, and breathed out. "But the party! Stone was there! Dozens of us!"  
  
"She didn't meet anyone except Weselton. He owns the machinery and survey teams that found the seams. Apart from him she didn't run into anyone else, and remember this was before this discovery was public so they weren't exactly clamouring to meet her either. Congresswoman Anna Summerford as of this moment you are the sole person in the United States government to have spoken with Queen Elsa of Arendelle, a country which probably just leaped up the global rich-list a whole lot of ranks."  
  
She could picture it too, and she knew what was coming next. She might have been a neophyte compared to the other old dogs she was surrounded by, but she could still smell trouble coming a mile away. "Who's going to care about this picture?" she asked, tapping the Enquirer.  
  
"Why no-one Anna. Who could possibly care about someone who was apparently on good speaking terms with an extremely rich country that certain people are at this minute really, really wishing they knew well?" Pabby just smiled at her in a gentle way. Pitying, almost "Anna, I think you should enjoy this little weekend you're taking, because come Monday morning everyone in that big white building sees this picture, and you're not going to dive into the deep end, you're going to get picked up and thrown in."  
  
"Pick up. Pick up! Pickuppickuppickuppickup!"  
  
"Anna, hello."  
  
She breathed out a sigh of relief. "Kai, thank god. Listen…"  
  
Explaining didn't take long, mainly because Kai was if not smarter than her certainly more cynical, had zero problems believing that his boss was  
  
"I'm coming into the office now and-"  
  
"Actually you aren't, Anna."  
  
"What?"  
  
"It's locked, remember? Alice went to visit…well…Alice has vanished into the ether frankly and I lack the dark magicks to call her back whatever wonderland she flies to when not working. The interns stalk the halls searching for leftover food and a boiler to sleep next to. I myself have tickets to the opera and I intend to use them. The office is closed, Ms Summerford."  
  
"But this changes everything. I have to prepare for this." What she had to prepare for she could barely guess at. The smell of money would draw dozens out of hiding, looking for any angle they could find.  
  
"Preparation is the job of your staff, and your staff will see you bright and early on Monday morning," Kai said, in that incredibly infuriating way he had when both of them knew he was right. "My suggestions stand. Sleep. Rest. Prepare yourself. Whatever onslaught will happen, will happen seventy-two hours from now." His voice changed, lost some of that acerbic edge. "Please Anna. Burning the candle at both ends only ensures you melt twice as fast."  
  
She rubbed her eyes. It was only mid-day on a Friday but she already felt tired. She hated it but Kai was right. "Thanks," she said, and sincerely meant it.  
  
"There is one thing…"  
  
She opened her eyes again and found herself looking out over the dome of the Capitol building. "Yes?"  
  
"One number that was left for us, I think a contact might be in order. Are you ready?"  
  
She always kept a pen in her breast pocket. "Always." Kai rattled off a string of numbers, and Anna jotted them down on the back of her hand. "Is this a phone-number?" She didn't recognise the area code though. Maybe it was…  
  
"Yes, it was left for you by a Gunnar Bergland-"  
  
Anna's breath caught in her throat as Kai spoke over her.  
  
"-of the Arendelle embassy. Anna? Anna?"  
  
"I'm…I'm here," Anna said, staring at the back of her hand like holy symbols were engraved on it.  
  
"Please have a calm weekend Anna. Don't do anything rash."  
  
"I promise," she sad.  
  
"And do call your parents." With a click, he was gone, and Anna was left alone on the street outside the Capitol Hill, with a number on the back of her hand she didn't know whether she dared call.  
  
Wuss, her brain told herself, as she dialled. Not the number that she had already written down and put safely into her purse though. This number she knew from memory.  
  
"Hi daddy."  
  
"Hey darling, how's tricks? Still keeping your head above water?"  
  
Anna sighed as she took a sip from her coffee. The nice thing about being in DC was you couldn't go half a block without running into somewhere serving the stuff. More baristas in Washington than lawmakers. This one was barely more than a whole in the wall, but it had a good view over the river, and Anna loved a good view more than good coffee. "Barely."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
Anna used the six words she knew her father loved to hear more than anything. "Daddy I could use some advice." There, that should do it. Right now he was probably settling down into his big comfortable chair with a smile, ready to dispense wisdom in his role as Grand Old Governor Summerford. She wished she was back there in the old house with him.  
  
"Anytime for you Anna. What's wrong?"  
  
"I've found myself really kind of…well what I mean is…" She took a deep breath, and tried again. "Suddenly I've found myself the only link between every lobbyist in DC and a whole whole lot of money."  
  
"Then it's been nice knowing you Anna, I'll pay my respects at your funeral."  
  
"Daddy please." She waited out his laughing. "This is serious." She explained further on, and waited for his reply.  
  
"Well you're not wrong precious. Batten down the hatches and wait for the knocks at the door. When did that old warhorse Pabby say this was happening?"  
  
"Paper comes out on Monday."  
  
"Then you have a weekend to prepare yourself for the onslaught. You need to think about what you're going to trade for."  
  
"Trade? But…"  
  
"Anna I know you're happy with what you have right now," he said, and Anna sighed. Her father had always been just a little off-put with the tiny little committee Anna had been foisted onto. "But this is a real opportunity. You've got access Anna, and people will pay through the nose for it."  
  
She didn't like thinking like that. She knew plays like this were normal in Washington, but she still didn't like it. When she had elected she had run her campaign clean, and she had wanted her term to be the same. She'd managed it so far, but she knew she had given up a few opportunities to keep it that way. When you don't play the game you don't get picked to be on any teams.  
  
And anyway she wasn't sure how much she liked trading on her one evening of time with Queen Elsa just to make herself feel better. She could feel the phone number Kai had given her burning a hole in her pocket.  
  
"That's why I love you so much Anna," her father said, as she gave him a shorter version of that. "But vultures will circle."  
  
"Any particular vultures in mind?"  
  
"Weselton."  
  
"Of course."  
  
"Just take the weekend Anna. I'd bet money Kai is prepping for Monday right now. Let him, it's his job. Consider this the calm before the storm."  
  
"Alright. Thanks daddy."  
  
"Come home for the weekend!"  
  
"Thanks but no. If you're both right I'll need to get my game-face on and I can't do that if mom is feeding it up with chocolate."  
  
"Alright. Darling?"  
  
"Yes daddy?"  
  
"Good luck."  
  
Should she call it?  
  
Anna lay in her bed in her apartment and stared up at the ceiling in her pyjamas like a girl in a movie, the thought wandering up and down her mind like a pacing dog wanting to be let outside.  
  
The number came from Elsa that much was clear. But should she call it? What would she say? Hi your majesty thanks for the fun conversation, did you want to maybe get coffee sometime and talk about mineral rights? Oh god that was awful how could she even think that? Hi Queen Elsa do you want to get together and talk about the awful men in our lives whose names start with 'W? I'll trade you Westergard for Weselton any day.  
  
I'd love to see Arendelle. Hadn't she said that on the night? Hadn't she also been motor-mouthing something about the queen coming to visit Texas at some point and her agreeing maybe? Maybe that was it. Maybe it was nothing more than a couple of secretaries wondering if that was still A Thing? God though she had never entertained a dignitary herself! She had no idea what to do! She'd need to ask her father for advice again but she wasn't sure if she was ready for two days of Old Governor Summerford.  
  
There was a knock at her door, and then a rattle of keys. She wasn't worried.  
  
"Anna, are you there?" a soft and deep voice called through from her living room.  
  
"I'm dying in my bed. It's the plague, don't come in!" she shouted back, still staring at the ceiling. A shadow appeared at her doorway, and she turned. "Hi Tiana."  
  
A vision in a yellow-ish dress and rolled-up sleeves walked into her bedroom, black hair knotted up on her head. "Good morning Anna. Are you feeling alright?"  
  
When Anna had first arrived in Washington she had made…some mistakes. The first had been assuming for some stupid reason that congressional offices had beds. Strike one. The second had been assuming that any hotels anywhere nearby would be either cheap enough for her to afford or nice enough to be worth living in. Strike two.  
  
Tiana had saved her from making a strike three when Kai had given her a name and an address, and Anna had wound up looking at the door of an old brownstone building. She had knocked and the door had been opened by an amazing Louisianan who had taken one look at the young congresswoman and asked her if she needed a place to stay. Anna had said yes and Tiana had given her a price that seemed too good to be true.  
  
It's cheaper because you'll work harder, Tiana had replied, and Anna had figured out why. The brownstone building had been in Tiana's family for two generations, bought with – and this Anna had only found out from one of the other tenants – the death gratuity from her father's military service. It was for women only and it was cheaper because everyone who lived there had to chip in something besides money. It was more symbolic than anything else, but symbols were important. There were enough people to do the cooking, cleaning and laundry that it ended up being Anna's turn to do each roughly once a month.  
  
"It was your turn to do laundry yesterday," Tiana said, not judgemental. Well, maybe just a little.  
  
Oh, jeez, she had totally forgotten. She clapped her hands over her eyes and sat up on the bed. "Oh jeez I'm sorry Tiana. It's been a hell of a week."  
  
"So I've heard."  
  
"If…wait, you have?"  
  
"One of the girls gets the Enquirer. You looked very pretty with that young thing." Tiana's brown eyes were just a little better than other people's. "She feel the way she looks?" she teased her younger tenant.  
  
Anna resisted the urge to throw a pillow at her landlord. She swung her legs off the bed. "Sorry, I'll make it up to you."  
  
"The kitchen downtown always needs dish-washers remember," Tiana said, and Anna winced. As well as the old building Tiana owned a café somewhere in…well…not the bad part of town but certainly in a louder one. It was a fantastic place if you loved Creole food, but Anna had never had the stomach for it. Tenants who welched on their monthly chores made it up to her by serving as dishwashers and waiters for a couple of nights.  
  
"I'll get them twice next month, give another girl a break," Anna begged.  
  
"Fine, but only because of your job, and only because you're so good the rest of the time."  
  
"Thanks Tiana. Urgh."  
  
Tiana paused for a second. Anna was clearly wrestling with something. "Are you really alright kiddo?"  
  
"Just business as usual," Anna replied.  
  
"This young royal being the business?"  
  
"Yes," Anna admitted. She had always felt better talking to Tiana, even though she felt like such a snob whenever she did so. In comparison to what Tiana had done to make it to a huge expensive building and a successful café, Anna felt like she had been handed her life on a plate. Was she really about to complain about her job at the top of government to a woman who actually worked for a living?  
  
Tiana knew Anna thought that way though, the redhead had an awful poker face and wore her heart on her sleeve. It was actually one of the reasons she had accepted her as a tenant. She had been a little worried about having a career politician for a tenant, she had no time for supercilious creatures like that, but the redhead had looked so lost standing on her stoop. In the year and a half since she'd taken the girl's money she hadn't had a reason to complain yet. Anna loved to help people wherever she could, and right now the black woman could see the pale little thing stood pacing the room in her jammies needed to talk. "What's the big problem?"  
  
Anna sighed in frustration. "It's hard to explain!"  
  
"Try me."  
  
"I like El- the queen, right? We talked for a while and she was nice and we seemed to get along and…"  
  
"And you want to be friends with herm" she said in wonder. You adorable goofy white girl.  
  
"Yes! But now all this mess is going to start happening, and…urgh. I feel like such a rat for even thinking like this but…"  
  
Tiana grasped it instantly. "But if you traded on that friendship with other people you might get what you want a little faster than otherwise."  
  
Anna flailed her arms in the air. "Exactly!"  
  
Tiana sighed, grasping the predicament instantly. "You're a good girl Anna."  
  
"Gee, thanks."  
  
Tiana sat down on the bed as Anna changed in the bathroom. "No, I mean it." Tiana kept track of who came and went in her building and she knew Anna didn't really have many friends. There was a tiny British girl – Alice or something – who was nice and polite but that was just someone she worked with. There was that reporter who Anna met with sometimes but that was just work too. Of all the girls who lived in her building Anna definitely had the most important job, but the girl had the least friends of anyone she knew in Washington. "You have to choose between getting to know this girl better and using your relationship to make others listen to you."  
  
"Yes!" Anna shouted through the closed door.  
  
Well, Tiana could certainly emphasise with that devil's bargain. She still remembered a certain slumlord back in Louisiana. But this wasn't about her. "Would she understand?"  
  
On the other side of the door Anna paused as she pulled her top on. "Yes, but…" She knew Elsa would understand somehow, but she wouldn't forgive being treated as a bargaining chip. She just knew it, somehow. "But I don't think we'd be friends, ever." She opened the door. "Well?"  
  
"You look good."  
  
"Only good?"  
  
"How good can a person look in those horrible pantsuits you wear?" Tiana asked, looking at Anna's ensemble. Dark green trousers and jacket, with a white shirt underneath. God, the things they made women wear in this town just to avoid being called names. "You should wear dresses more, you look better in them."  
  
Anna sighed as she buttoned her sleeves. "I want to, but I want to be out of those awful papers as well."  
  
"The sacrifices we make for our country."  
  
Anna wanted to make a comeback, but stopped herself at the last second. "Yeah, well…"  
  
"So what are you planning for your weekend, before the levee breaks?" She held up a hand. "Wait, let me guess. National Gallery. Smithsonian Air and Space. Washington Monument."  
  
Anna cringed. "Am I that predictable?"  
  
"I would say 'no' and make you feel better but there's a load of dirty laundry with your name on it in the washroom, so; yes."  
  
"It's just what I enjoy is all," Anna muttered.  
  
"Anna I take it back, even if the option was between this girl and being the President. I mean this in the nicest possible way but please, please make this girl your friend."  
  
Alright Anna. This isn't that hard. You're a grown woman. You're a member of congress. You've negotiated deals between teachers unions and teamsters. You've made state-wide legislation and you can talk easily with police chiefs and senators. Picking up a phone and dealing some numbers can't be that hard.  
  
She took a deep breath, and hit the first one.  
  
She didn't hit a second.  
  
Okay no maybe it is.  
  
God, it reminded her of phoning…whatever his name had been…asking for a date to her prom. She didn't even remember his name now but trying to phone him had been the most nerve-wracking experience of her life. Worse than when she had run for student president at UT-Austin. Worse than her dissertation presentation in front of her department head. Worse than her first committee meeting when she had been the lone girl under thirty, surrounded by old men in their fourties.  
  
You're not sixteen now Anna! Make the call!  
  
She closed her eyes and punched the numbers before she could stop herself. She got it right third time. The clicks and rings of the connection were unbearable and for every millisecond she hoped the call would drop. Eventually though it ended, and she heard a thin static-y click, and a voice come over her handset.  
  
"Gerda." A woman said, and instantly Anna thought staffer. It just had that…that tone it to, which said 'gatekeeper' and 'confidant' at the same time. Kai had the same tone.  
  
"Hello? This is-"  
  
The voice had the other end of the phone-line sighed, and began to speak in very badly-accented Enlish: "Reporter directed to Press Secretary. Thank you."  
  
"No I-"  
  
"Thank you."  
  
Click.  
  
Anna just sat on her bed, a little shell-shocked. Well, that was-  
  
"Hello? This is Evangeline Voll, who's calling?"  
  
The second voice was much younger, almost melodious in fact, and their English was much better. Anna took a deep breath. "This is Congresswoman Anna Summerford calling from the United States."  
  
"Certainly ma'am. If this is a governmental matter I can arrange for my superior to speak to yours in-"  
  
"No, this is actually Congresswoman Anna Summerford," Anna said, and waited.  
  
The response was gratifying. "Oh! Apologies congresswoman, we rarely have dignitaries call directly." Anna decided not to tell the woman – obviously the royal's press secretary – that she was calling from a cheap handset next to her bed. "How can I assist? I can put you through to the chief of staff is you-"  
  
"No, thank you," she thought, and shuddered. She paused before speaking. What was she calling for? She had gotten herself so caught up in whether she should call or not that she had forgotten to think of why she wanted to call at all. "I…"  
  
"Congresswoman?"  
  
Ah! There it was, in front of her all along. "I'm here. I'm sorry, I was momentarily distracted. I was calling about an offer that I extended to the queen on our last meeting. A diplomatic visit of sorts."  
  
"Of course congresswoman. I would…I'm sorry one second."  
  
Oh now what? Anna sat on her bed tapping her feet against the floor, the headset held in her hands like a wilting violet in a movie, desperately waiting for her young man to call back.  
  
"Congresswoman Anna Summerford, from Texas?" Eva asked, her manner just a little different, a little warmer.  
  
"Yes," Anna replied.  
  
"Is this about government business?"  
  
"No, I was just…"  
  
"Please hold one minute for the queen."  
  
"I- what?"  
  
"He won't back down," Gerda said, standing in front of her ruler's desk.  
  
Elsa sighed, and put her head on her folded arms on the desk in a gesture that looked more like an exasperated teenager than a queen. Gerda had had…well…she hadn't exactly had words with the queen about it, because at the end of the day she was still the queen, but certainly she had made her opinion known that even in private queens did not huff their cheeks out in exasperation, or wear scraggly old sweaters a size too big for her and faded old jeans, no matter whether the sweater had been a hand-knit gift from her mother, or the jeans had been ones she had bought for herself before her coronation.  
  
"What is he still asking for?" Elsa asked, running a finger idly across the desk. It had been- it was her father's desk, and his father's desk before him, and probably went back right to the founding of the country somehow. It was old oak that looked like it could have been brought directly out of the forest as-is, the legs twisted and gnarled with age, only the surface flattened and re-surfaced to make it suitable to work on. Agdar had always said keeping the thing in the ruler's private study helped him to remember himself, when for the rest of his time he was surrounded by beautiful things. It kept him grounded. Elsa might not have agreed with him – she never had any trouble remembering that just because she was surrounded by beauty and expense, there were others out there that weren't – but she still used it too. She had always loved her fathe- her study. It was smaller than the throne room and smaller than her official office, with a burning fireplace that burned real logs and made a beautiful crackling noise, and the walls were filled with bookshelves assembled by five generations of Arendelles.  
  
Gerda consulted her memory. "He still wants a percentage," she said, a note of exasperation creeping into her own voice. She could fob off most of the contractors and other businessmen onto underlings, but Weselton she dealt with herself, and the man was a force of nature. She had whittled down many of his more unreasonable demands but every time he would return to this one.  
  
Elsa raised her head up, her hair cascading over her shoulders and face. After appointments were over and she had retreated into the castle's private residence she always took the braid down, or even off, depending on how bad the day had been. Not that work ended when she left the official royal offices, but at least she could be more comfortable. "Absolutely not. He's been told."  
  
"His ears are perhaps not working correctly, because he does not hear," Gerda said. "He says it's standard on a find of this magnitude, and due to the size and complexity of the recovery involved his company deserves a percentage rather than a flat fee."  
  
Elsa blew a stray hair out of her eyes. "We could shout louder."  
  
"You could-"  
  
"No," Elsa said instantly, before Gerda could go on, and before that red blush could creep up onto her cheeks. "I won't speak with him again." Last week's embarrassment still burned in her heart like a fire. Elsa wasn't going to let herself be treated like that without consequences.  
  
"The risk is he withdraws from the contract entirely," Gerda said, not being able to see Elsa's thoughts.  
  
"Do we have that list of other companies ready in case he does?" she asked.  
  
"It is a short one. Weselton has made his…well…let's say he's made his stake known, and is willing to fight over first dibs. The other heavy mining companies all work with him, and most of them get their spare parts via his other businesses. They're cautious about taking away anything the old man sees as his, or suddenly their orders will start being delayed or lost in transit. He is in a good position and he knows it."  
  
Perfect. Absolutely perfect. God, what she'd give to be rid of that man. "Keep arguing," Elsa said. "He can argue his fee up and down all he wants but he isn't getting a percentage, ever."  
  
"Yes, your majesty."  
  
"If we- Yes?" Elsa asked, as someone knocked at the large white door.  
  
"Eva, ma'am," the voice said, and Elsa watched as Gerda twitched ever so slightly.  
  
"Come in."  
  
The door opened to admit the young woman past the two guards, ever near her. "Your majesty. Gerda."  
  
"Eva," Gerda said tightly.  
  
"Something wrong?"  
  
Eva smiled radiantly. "Of course not ma'am."  
  
"Good," Gerda muttered.  
  
"There's a phone-call for you, from the United States. It's-"  
  
"Oh for god's sake," Gerda said. "We've told dozens of reporters we have no comment. You're supposed to deal with this Eva." To be fair she could hardly be blamed for being annoyed. The phones had been ringing off the hook since the announcement. Business editors and reporters and major newspapers all wanting some opinion. They had ended up setting aside a small pool of staff just to answer the phones. You said 'gold' in one town and half the world heard.  
  
"It isn't a reporter, Gerda," Eva said, her smile or expression not changing a single iota. She turned to her ruler and blocked the older woman entirely. "You asked me to let you know if you received a call from the offices of Texas congresswoman-"  
  
"Anna?" Elsa breathed, ignoring the look Gerda gave her.  
  
Eva smiled. "Yes ma'am."  
  
"Who is it?" Elsa asked. "Are they phoning to arrange something?"  
  
"No ma'am, it's her."  
  
"What?"  
  
"It's actually the congresswoman. On the phone, right now," Eva said, still smiling.  
  
The blush of anger was now threatening to turn into a different kind of blush. Elsa would have buried her face in her sweater to stop it. Luckily her staff decided to take mercy on her.  
  
"Will you be needing me to wrestle with the United States tonight?" Gerda asked.  
  
Elsa turned to Eva. "Is this call official or…umm…?"  
  
"Just social," Eva said, and pointedly ignored the raised eyebrow Gerda gave her.  
  
"No it's fine I'll take it here!" Elsa said quickly. "Thank you Gerda."  
  
"Good night your majesty," Gerda said, and bowed as she walked out past the two slabs guarding her door.  
  
"Line three your majesty," Eva said. She leaned in, just a little. "Good luck."  
  
"Good luck with…what?" Eva asked, but Eva had already followed her boss, and suddenly Elsa was alone in the room, sitting in an old blue hand-knit sweater a size too big at a rackety old desk, staring at the blinking light on her phone.  
  
Elsa stared at the blinking light for she didn't know how long. Maybe she half hoped that by the time she picked up the headset the person at the other end would have hung up. But the little yellow light just pulsed at her on the desk.  
  
That blush wasn't going away.  
  
It felt like minutes. Anna glanced at a clock. Hell, it was minutes. Maybe the woman – Eva – hadn't put her through after all, had just assumed she was a crank-caller and right now they were laughing at her. Maybe the number was bad and someone was screwing with her. If she-  
  
"Hello? Anna?"  
  
Anna froze up. The quality was terrible and scratchy over a bad phone-line somewhere but she could still recognise the voice coming through the phone and right into her ears, and she felt the hairs there tickle.  
  
"Elsa?"  
  
Thank God she had sent Gerda and Eva out because she was definitely blushing now. It must have been the summer heat, and the fireplace. "Hello," Elsa said down the phone-line, her other hand playing around with the extension cord. "How are you?" Really? Was that was she was going for? She sounded like a robot.  
  
"I'm…I'm fine. I'm just great. You gave- well, someone gave me your number. Well not your number but your staff's number. Are they called servants since you're a queen? I'm sorry, I'm rambling."  
  
"No, that's okay," Elsa said, smiling, and it really was okay. Thoughts and anger about that horrible Duke man and his cronies felt like they were flowing out of her like water from a sieve. "I asked someone to give it to you after we talked at the party."  
  
"The party, right," Anna said, laughing nervously herself. At least that was two of them. "I…oh, hey, congratulations, I heard. I guess I'm not the first person to say that though"  
  
"Thanks," Elsa said, and meant it. "And you are, actually. The first to say it me personally, at least."  
  
"Well I'm honoured. Listen I…err. I was wondering if you remembered what we'd talked about? About…well…I guess they'd be called diplomatic relations. Visits."  
  
Anna held her breath as she waited for the response. Eventually after a heartbeat that felt like an eternity she heard;  
  
"Yes, of course, I remember. Are you still…Is it still something you'd be interested in?"  
  
She sat up straight. "Of course! I'd love to!" There was silence on the other end of the line for a long minute, then…  
  
"I can't just come to Texas, not with everything that's going on, but I'll almost certainly be coming down on a trip to Washington sooner or later. Would you be there too? I'm not sure what…well…how congress spend their time."  
  
Don't tell her you spend it mainly talking to yourself in museums. "If congress is in session we'll be there," Anna said, and wished she kept a rolodex at her apartment. Damn, she would have to wait 'till Monday to check. "I'll certainly be around." She would make time. Her parents would understand if she didn't go back to Texas for a little while, right? She could show Elsa around Washington at least. "I'd like that."  
  
"Me too," Elsa said on the other end of the line.  
  
"Me too." She wished she hadn't sent Gerda out of the room now. Maybe she was still close-by. She was pretty sure she had a visit arranged, there was a Norwegian artist performing at some point she had promised their King she would make it to, and she was pretty sure at least one performance was going to be in the US. She could kill three birds with one stone. A favour to the old man, a photo with the American president, and maybe if she was lucky she could learn a little more about…well…Texas was famous for oil mining, and it was a long way from Virginia. Maybe long enough that Weselton didn't have his hands in it. Yes! "I'll have my people arrange something," she said down the phone line, smiling with triumph. This was perfect.  
  
"Great!" Anna said, sounding just as happy as Elsa did right then. "We can…you can really see what America is all about. We can show you so much."  
  
"One day I'll return the favour," Elsa said, and in her mind's eye she could already see herself showing Anna around the castle, the old parts of the city where Old King Sven had first made landfall in the country that could eventually become Arendelle. There was the mountain, and the old forest. She checked her watch. "I'm sorry Anna but I have to go, it's getting late here. But it was a pleasure talking to you again." She needed to find Gerda before her chief of staff left for the day and ask her about that opera play. She hoped there was still time to accept it.  
  
"Me too. Goodnight Elsa."  
  
"Good ni- good afternoon Anna," Elsa replied, and it took actual effort for her to put the phone down.  
  
She waited until she heard the click of the other woman hanging up, and only then did she put the phone down.  
  
Wow. That went…that went better then she could have expected. She felt a glow spread over her cheeks. That went way better than she could have had expected.  
  
"Anna, are you alright?"  
  
"Hmm?" She glanced sideways to see Tiana looking at her from the doorway. "You know most landlords knock."  
  
"What can I say, I've been a little worried. Looks like I didn't need to be though, since someone looks so happy." The older woman laughed as Anna blushed. "Something to celebrate?"  
  
"Maybe," Anna said with a smile.  
  
"Need a friend to celebrate it with?" Tiana asked gently, easing the girl in. Sometimes looking at Anna she got the impression the girl was even younger than she looked. Like if there wasn't someone there to anchor her she'd just keep going and going like a dynamo, and burn out. Something drove little Anna Summerford so much she passed by the rest of her life, and Tiana wondered what it was.  
  
"Are we friends Tiana?" Anna asked.  
  
"I'd like to be."  
  
"Good. Come on."  
  
"Wh- hey!" Anna exclaimed as Tiana threw her coat at her. She stuck her head out. "Where are we going?"  
  
"To my husband's place."  
  
"I told you I'd do double washing next month."  
  
"Girl you aren't washing any dishes. You can't celebrate properly in these cheap bars you politicians like, coffee and cheap sandwiches aren't a food group. Me and Naveen are going to feed and liquor you up properly." Tiana put a big feathery hat on and levered Anna up to her feet with one hand. "Come on."  
  
"Urgh."  
  
"Don't 'urgh' me girl. You need to learn how to have a good time."  
  
"Urgh."  
  
"Are you alright your majesty?"  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
Elsa kept looking out the window, towards the mountain. If you asked most people in Arendelle they might just say they liked it, or that it was pretty, but Elsa really did love the giant north mountain, the ring of forest around it like soldiers standing guard. The story went that the first king had landed here on the coast where the big city now stood he had proclaimed it a monument to the power of God, and that any dwelling built in its shadow would be under its protection. Looking out at night Elsa could just about see the shape of the giant mountain from one of the northern corridors, and just looking made her feel safer, more secure, something recently she had badly felt she needed. The crown was locked up whenever it wasn't being used, but Elsa still felt it on her head. Ever since Gerda had brought her the reports about the riches under the mountain, the weight had only ever felt heavier.  
  
"I asked if you were alright Elsa," Kristoff said.  
  
"Hmm. I'm fine, thanks," she replied, still staring out at the mountain. She was fine too. She felt better than she had for days. The last time she had felt this fine and at peace in fact, she had been half a world away, staring out over a beautiful garden and laughing with a new friend. At least she hoped it had been a new friend.  
  
Kristoff watched in shock as his principle turned red from the cheeks down. "Elsa are you blushing?"  
  
Elsa turned to look at her bodyguard, mortified. "No!"  
  
"You are!"  
  
"Don't tell anyone."  
  
"Yes, your majesty," Kristoff said, grinning, utterly unconvincing.  
  
"I mean it!" she snarled, walking closer to him and unfolding to her full height, which…wasn't that much extra really. It was a little hard to intimidate someone when they towered over you though, and they were armed and wearing a suit and you were in a sweater and jeans. God, if the Enquirer could get this picture. "I'm going to bed," Elsa said, and turned.  
  
"Good night your majesty. Oh, one thing."  
  
"What?" she asked, turning back on one foot to look at him.  
  
"Gerda couldn't catch you, but she said the answer was…" he trailed off, and grinned.  
  
"Was what, was what?" she demanded, needing to know.  
  
"The answer is yes."  
  
His reward was a smile that could have lit the heavens.


	4. Chapter 4

"I had no idea you liked the opera your majesty," Eva said.

Elsa stared up at her Press Secretary, and the slight smile on her face, and tried her best to stay calm and keep her poker face up. She had never played poker but she was sure she had a pretty good one. You needed to be, for a job like this one. "It's a favour," she said. "And I don't really have anything _against_ the opera."

"I only ask because if you like we have several other invitations that I can forward to-"

"Oh no that won't be necessary thank you," Elsa said quickly, far too quickly, and cursed herself. "King Harald was a friend of my father is all, I just think it'd be…nice to keep up old friendships, and maybe form some new ones."

Eva's smile didn't waver an inch. _She knows._ "I hear the new American President is a fan. Maybe the two of you can bond."

"Maybe. Thank you Eva."

The tall dark woman bowed. "Your majesty." Elsa watched her as she swayed out of the room, and let out a sigh.

She hated the opera. Couldn't stand it. Her father liked it and had used to insist on dragging her mother and herself to see whatever new performance was being held, and while Elsa was pretty sure that Idunn had _eventually_ learned to love it she never had found that inner strength. Sitting in a high-up box while overdressed singers droned on in dead languages wasn't something she particularly enjoyed. Elsa liked _parties_. She had liked the friends she had made at Oslo U. She had liked staying up 'till morning in her student housing and talking about their classes and lectures and watching movies until they fell asleep on the floor. She had liked the small house parties filled with people who all knew each other who she could talk to for hours and hours about everything under the sun.

She didn't like huge thousand-guest balls or grand parties filled with people who all _wanted something_ from her, and where the most friendly contact she would meet all night would be the waiters handing her drinks. Ever since the Weselton manor disaster it was the only thing she could see in her future forever. Eva had shown her the call logs and they were swamped, utterly. They had actually taken on extra staff just to deal with the truly mind-boggling amount of attention they were getting. Leaders halfway across the world who had sent peremptory phone-calls on her coronation and gave her ambassadors invitations as an afterthought were talking about Arendelle in print, calling hoping to convey their deepest congratulations and maybe to talk about closer relations. Economic papers were talking about the new powerhouse of Scandinavia. She could do anything she wanted. She should be ecstatic.

Elsa slid down in her chair until her face was resting on her hands in an extremely un-queen-like position. Somehow even though she was poised for the greatest triumph in the last ten generations of Arendelle royalty, on the brink of bringing her country to stand among the best of the world, she was more miserable than ever.

She needed to do something to take her mind from this mess. She stood and pushed her chair back, and left before she could think of a reason not to go. If she started dwelling too much she'd stay in that chair all day. She keyed her intercom for one of her private secretaries.

"What do I have for the rest of today?"

The answer came back. Very little. Gerda was dealing with Weselton – weeks now, the man was just either the most oblivious or the most persistent man she had ever known – and Eva and her deputies were helping to corral as much as she could. She decided. Paperwork could wait an hour. She needed to escape her official office, much less cosy than her private study, and _go_ somewhere. Even if that somewhere was just a minute's walk down the hall.

 _Your majesty_ , greeted everyone she passed in the halls, and she smiled and replied and did her best to be the polite queen, the dignified and regal young queen who everyone thought was going to take them to the stratosphere.

From the outside there was no telling, but from the inside the private residence of the Arendelle royal family was separated on all sides by walls, like a house built right into the massive structure. Which it was, really. A corridor that ran along the ground floor connected the two, and was the only way in, and was guarded at all times. Behind the door they stood at, business ended, and Elsa was really in her home. She had grown up there, like a baby bird who instead of being born had just stayed inside her egg, itself inside a larger egg. When she had been younger she had desperately wanted to leave it forever, to sneak outside her home and outside the castle and meet people who didn't work for her family. The older she had gotten the more the feeling had lessened though (going to school in Arendelle city had _definitely_ helped.

Right now though she desperately wanted to disappear back inside it. Collect the broken pieces of eggshell and re-assemble it back around her. Let the castle and the city and the country beat on it all they wanted, she would be safe and warm there.

"Your majesty."

"Hi Kristoff." She considered stopping and talking, but she knew he wouldn't. They were Elsa and Kristoff only when they were alone. Whenever anyone else was present they were Kristoff and Her Majesty. "Is my mother in the residence?" She got the nod, and walked past him, pushing through the double-doors into her home.

It was like stepping into a portal. In the castle everything was ornate scrollwork, marble and ancient wood where it had stood for centuries, or off-white walls and wooden offices where the staff worked. It was a place you worked in, not one you lived in. In comparison to that the private residence really _was_ a home. If Elsa turned around and looked back at the doorframe she would see her tiny handprints there, ones she had made when she was five. She closed her eyes and smelled the lovely old wood her father kept – had kept, mother did it now – polished to a mirror shine. Pictures on the walls that her father had collected when he was younger, mixed in with pictures Elsa had drawn of houses and towers when she was a baby that he refused to take down. A kitchen with a fridge filled with multi-coloured fridge magnets that had been a birthday present and she had spent endless time writing funny words with, where her father had made her tuna-fish sandwiches before her first day of school. Before he was diagnosed. Before he spent most of his waking hours bed-ridden. Before-

_I won't cry._

"Elsa?"

She turned to see who had addressed her, and found a woman in a dark blue dress staring at her, her brown hair in a harsh bob and light blue eyes. Her face was lined with creases from age and worry but it was still beautiful for all that. The Queen always had been beautiful.

"Mother."

* * *

"Did they come?"

"Anna please, this is becoming more than a little worrying."

" _ALICE!"_

"Ma'am?"

"Don't call me ma'am. Did the tickets come?"

"Kai is holding them ma'am."

"Kai!"

"Anna, please."

The only reason she didn't reach up and attempt to wrest them from his grasp was because the desk was too long, and her arms were tired from writing memos in committee all day. If she stared at any more minutes today it felt like her eyes would drop from her skull. "Give." She wanted the tickets. Not because she liked opera at all. She got bored. She got _really_ bored. It wasn't that she didn't _appreciate_ the fact that some people really, really loved it, she just didn't personally see the appeal.

What she _had_ seen, just a few days ago, had been the updated itinerary for Capitol Events, which kept a fairly up-to-date record of upcoming presentations, theatre and…well… _events…_ that mattered to Congress. More specifically, one event:

KENNEDY CENTRE 31/10/2012 POTUS/ARENDELLE DELEGATION/PRESENTATION

That had been enough to start the wheels turning. Well, not really turning. Whirling like dervishes.

Kai reached into his waistcoat and brought out the tickets, but not without shooting Anna a look of deep, deep suspicion. "Anna I know you generally dislike any recreational activity that doesn't either involve dirt or that puts you in a vaguely politically-compromising position. Because of this I feel compelled to ask you something."

"That's a little harsh Kai."

"Hmm, true though…"

"Indeed, thank you Alice."

Anna held the tickets in her hand like they were gold dust. She sighed as her chief of staff stared down at her. "What's your question?" she asked.

"Alice, give us the room please."

"Certainly sir. Shall I bring coffee and tea?"

"No, thank you."

Kai and Anna watched as Alice left the office and gently closed the doors behind her.

"Isn't she delightful?"

"Kai what's-"

"Anna, how long have we known each other?" Kai asked, cutting her off.

She raised an eyebrow. What now? "As long as I can remember." Kai had been a fixture in her life growing up, a tall rotund figure usually standing near her father. They had never been _close,_ but they'd developed an easy relationship you did with someone you met practically every single day of your life. Her father trusted him utterly, and she did too. Without him it was unlikely she'd have ever raised enough money to win the election. She couldn't really imagine a Summerford campaign without Kai being attached to it. "Why?"

"Anna, are you alright?" he asked, and Anna was surprised not at the words – he usually asked her a similar question at least one a week – but at the tone. He really sounded like he was _asking._

"Of course Kai."

"I ask because for the last few weeks you've been….Hmmm. How do I put this delicately?"

"Be like normal and don't."

"You've been distracted. Scatterbrained."

"I have not!" she said, and regretted it even as she did so.

Kai pulled up one of the office chairs and sat. "Other people don't notice Anna, I will reassure you of this. There's been no change in your work. Your work in the committee has been excellent and punctual as always. Your meetings with the public visitors has left them spellbound. Your campaigns for the schools back home have been marvellous."

"Thanks."

"But I notice. Your staff notices. Alice asked me only last Monday if you had been going through – I swear to the lord – a bad breakup. Naturally I assured her this was impossible as you were practically celibate-"

"Oh, geez, thanks."

"-and your landlord informs me you aren't eating well, if at all."

Anna looked up at her chief. "Kai please tell me my landlady isn't spying on me."

"Tiana looks after her girls Anna. She called me because she was worried about you. The boyfriend question also came up with her, incidentally."

"I'm not- I'm fine! I eat!" God she sounded so dumb saying that. Take a deep breath Anna. "You know how busy I am."

And she was. Like a filthy old hobo-oracle, Pabby's words had come true. Congressmen who before would just nod as they passed would smile as she walked the halls of the capitol. Men in suits that cost more than her yearly salary passed business cards into her hands and said words like _if there's anything we can do to help._ Lobbyists had wondered if they could grab a lunch with her to talk about…things of mutual interest. Exchanges. She had been asked if she was happy on her committee. She was getting so much more help than before and while she had to turn down some favours because of…strings attached, the ones she had felt were ethically alright to take had made her job _so much easier_. It really felt like the door to the mythical Inner Washington, where deals were made and the real work got done, had finally opened for her just a crack. She was thrilled. She was also dead tired.

"I've seen this before, with your father."

She felt jittery, nervous of where this little conversation was going. "Kai I'm not really in the mood for story-time right now."

"You remind me of him you know. His first term as school governor."

"What? How?"

"He was the same way you were. Overworked and refused to slow down. He was nervous, worried he'd only get a single term. You know he only won by a recount?"

She did, it was an old story in the family that daddy liked to trot out when he had guests over. Anna had won with sixty-nine percent, an unfathomable, gigantic number. Her father had tousled her hair like she was five again and told her how well she was going to do, so much better than her old man. No pressure, dad. "Yes."

"He did the same thing. Worked all hours of the day, on _important things_. It almost burned him out. I swear if not for your mother he'd have had five heart attacks before he was fifty."

"I don't see what this has to do with-"

"I'm not your father Anna, but I do care about you a great deal. You need to take a break."

"I take breaks."

"When? Your three-day weekend was long ago and if I recall you spent it talking with a certain Mister Patrick Anderson in various clubs. Where have you been since then, and not as part of work? Just because you wanted to go?"

She already had her answer lined up. "Hah! Shows what you know. I went to Tiana's restaurant a few weeks…ago." Oh, wow. _Wow._ That sounded so much worse out loud than it had in her head.

"A visit to a bar or a party out of state isn't a break. You need to go _home_ Anna, if only for a few days."

Anna swept a hand across her desk. She had an inch-thick report about school building conditions. She had another about bullying and drop-out statistics. She had a committee report about funding mismanagement and another about state versus federal regulations. "I need to be _here_ to deal with these things Kai."

"These problems have all existed long before you sat in this office Anna," Kai said, in the voice of someone who had seen similar people behind similar desks pointing at similar paperwork all his life.

"And I want them to _not exist anymore_ when I leave," she shot back.

"The good people who elected you will understand if you spare a week to go home and not self-destruct." Kai leaned forward. "Anna, if this is about Leif…"

It was, kind of. It had been a bad campaign. It had been a _very_ bad campaign. She had won in the end of course, but the man's hooks had left scars in her that still felt raw years later. When she had first announced her candidacy she had some crazy illusion that because she was so _young_ and because she was just _so nice_ that they would have a good clean campaign. Just the issues ma'am.

Oh Anna.

If you had opened a Washington dictionary you would be forgiven for wondering why the name Leif Westergard wasn't right there under 'old politics'. Also right there under 'snake'. The man had been a congressman for well over two decades the first time Anna had even _thought_ about throwing her hat into the ring. He was statesmanlike and palatial, and he ran Texas like a benevolent king. He wasn't old money, but he used the job title to pry the things he wanted from the hands of others. He took money from anyone offering it and piled up favours like a dragon hoarded gold. He knew the oil men and the mining men and the far-right and the centre and played himself as their only friend in the whole world against the statist democrats that would raise their taxes and the milquetoast republicans who would compromise away their guns and bibles. The papers loved him for his charm, loved his huge family of sons for their good looks and headlines (at least one of them was usually running for something with his daddy's help, at least one of them was in good-natured trouble once a week), and enough people across all the political spectrum tolerated the man just enough to give him reliable fifty-two percent of the vote. His grip on Texas politics had seemed utterly unassailable. Her father had always hated him, and when Anna had first run for school-board and _seen_ the state that endless cutbacks, unrealistic targets and politicising had left them in she had hated him too.

 _Are you sure about this darling?_ daddy had asked her gently when she had first told him she intended to run, the only time he had ever shown her anything other than full-throated support. She knew why. Men with twice her experience, more well-liked and ten times more charismatic and savvy than her had crossed Leif to try and wrest him from his throne, and every single one of them had left the ring like a whipped dog. Democratic opponents in the general election were branded as pro-gay, anti-gun tax-raising weaklings and that was bad enough, but Leif always kept the _worst_ for anyone who dared to challenge him in the primary. Skeletons were dug up and dragged out and hung on signs all over the state. Family members were examined to the tenth degree for any hint of scandal. School records and childhood problems and idle speculation were brought out and twisted into pretzels until they said whatever the old man wanted them to say.

 _Cross me and die,_ was the message Leif Westergard presented to his own party, and for over twenty years it had worked, until Anna had come along.

 _Do we really think this_ girl _has the experience? The wisdom? The_ courage _to lead our great state? She says she wants to fix our schools when she's barely out of one herself._

_How much does the girl think this is all going to cost? Who is it who's going to have to pay for all these new computers so kids can surf Myspace in school? Who's going to pay for these illegals to sit and learn next to our children?_

_Does she_ really _think Texas is small enough that it can be fixed with a little spit and glue? Maybe all that time on her father's knee – and there's a man no stranger to the left, I'll remind you – has convinced her we need her opinions more than we need common sense._

And over and over like a metronome, day in and day out. The only part of the whole mess Anna had taken pleasure in near the end was the increasing desperation as the campaign went on and Leif had seen his fifty-two percent drop to fifty-one, then to an even fifty. The day the polls had them neck and neck she had smiled at what must be going through his head, at the same time she had gritted her teeth at the true storm about to be unleashed.

It had been more subtle than a tornado, but no less damaging. The south wasn't what it had been even ten years ago. You couldn't just _say_ those words out loud anymore. You might gain the far-right, the very old and the very stupid, but you'd lose more from people who either embraced change or simply didn't care enough to fight it.

THE [ **RIGHT] [MAN]** FOR THE JOB, Leif's posters began to say, and pictures of her started getting younger showing her in school rather than as she was. There wouldn't be any pictures of the men she had dated over the years, instead it was mailed envelopes containing her next to the few female friends she had in college and giant words with question-marks that barely meant anything, like 'VALUES?'. Those same friends phoned her up, some of them for the first time in years, sounding very worried about the visits they had gotten from reporters at extremely dodgy-sounding papers asking about their relationship. Questions were asked about why she never really dated. Organisations with names like the Family Care Foundation and the Christian Good Governance Council bought billboards. People from universities she had never heard of went on air and talked about her disastrous ideas for school budgets and how much she was trying to destroy Texas education. False quotes about amnesty and minority control. Collusion with democrats to sabotage Honest Old Leif's campaign. A _letter bomb._

Nothing stuck, but they did it all anyway.

As the campaign had gone on she had lost ten pounds. She had felt tired all the time. More than once she'd collapsed at the end of the day and cried into the cheap hotel beds of whatever district they were staying in. She withdrew from everything except the campaign, lived and breathed it, woke up every morning until voting day thinking _just get through one more day and you can collapse. One more._

But somehow the more she was assaulted on all sides the more she wanted the job. Like after all that mess she would be damned if she didn't wrest it from his cold lizard hands. She went around school districts and met with young people whose textbooks were a decade old, young mothers who'd had every form of assistance removed from them, immigrants tossed out onto the street by uncaring landlords. She listened to their complaints and worries and fears and she drank it all in to reinforce herself as Leif tried to knock her down.

When the results had come in it was those people who won it for her. Leif carried the old white vote and the money. Anna swept him everywhere else. When the time had come for the photo-shoot and the handshake she had looked into the old snake's eyes and smiled. _I traded my life for this job and it was worth it for this moment._

"Anna, there were some…horrible things…said in the campaign," Kai said gently. "But that's past you now. You're in congress and he's an old man put out to pasture. You're not in a three-month campaign where every little thing is urgent, you have _years_ before re-election. You can afford to _rest_ sometimes!" Kai said, nearly the most passionate Anna had ever seen the man. "Your father sees the same thing. He asks when you're coming home."

Anna took a deep breath and resisted the urge to say _when I'm not so busy._ Because he was right. She'd always be busy. It was just…how she was. She saw a mountain of problems and she wanted to fix them _now._ She didn't _want_ to take it slow and steady and chip away at them over the rest of her term, or a second term, or a decade. She wanted to take a sledgehammer and smash them all down at once. "I hate it when you're right," she whispered.

Kai smiled. "Should I tell Alice to re-arrange your schedule?"

"No, I have too much right now. _But-_ " she said, raising her hand before Kai could complain. "If you can find me a week somewhere, I promise I'll go back home." She smiled just at the thought. Daddy would ask endless questions about the job and mother would endlessly tell him not to bother her so much. She could see the horses again. Maybe visit her old school.

A visit… _oh!_

"If it's a _fter_ the opera," she said. She wasn't missing that. She had traded in several big favours to take another congressman's place in that audience and she wanted to go. No, she _needed_ to go. She needed to meet _her_ again, to feel that sense of peace she'd felt at the Weselton ball and had only got a tiny bit of when they had talked over the phone weeks ago.

And she wanted to make it a _good_ visit too, not just another PR exercise, like they had both laughed at in the garden that night. She knew how those things went; there would be cameras and lights and they would watch the opera, but really they weren't even there for that. They'd be there to get another picture taken, of the both of them together, Officially Good Friends Now, Honest, and maybe from there a few mega-rich corp-owning individuals would manage to get their foot in the door to taking a crack at that mountain Elsa had, filled with all that wealth. Just more of what Anna did herself, but on the highest level instead of school-boards and committees.

Surely she could find _some_ way to make it more meaningful than some soulless photo pitch? It was her first visit to the U.S. on government business right? There would be a visit to the White House for photo-shoots and discussions, probably before _and_ after the opera. No way Anna rated highly enough to get into _that_ meeting, but maybe she could do something of her own beforehand. Nothing ostentatious, nothing that would make either of them look silly or desperate. Something small, something _significant_ that El- that the queen would like, rather than just one more overpriced re-production of the Declaration of Independence or a statue of Lincoln the President liked to give to visiting heads of state. She could do better than that.

But what did Elsa _like_?

* * *

"The opera! That's wonderful dear. I had no idea you liked it. Your father will be thrilled."

She shifted nervously in the chair, _her_ chair. Well, her chair as long as she had been alive. Before her it had probably been her mother's chair, and her mother before that. Most likely generations of young Arendelle women had sat there, slightly embarrassed, as their mothers gushed at them. It was ancient and creaky and the stitching was coming undone on the armrests where Elsa picked at it when she was nervous. Now it felt like it was disassembling under her fingers. She'd hit wood before the hour was out. "Not…exactly?"

"Oh?" Queen-Mother Idunn looked at her only child, and her voice was the voice of a thousand mothers trying to weasel the truth out of a stubborn child.

Her Majesty Queen Elsa of Arendelle squirmed in her seat like a five year-old caught forgetting to do her homework. "It's more of an…opportunity." Yes, that sounded appropriate. "With the trouble and demands from Mr Weselton and his company I think it would be best to diversify national contacts in-"

"Elsa, love. You don't need to explain yourself to me," Idunn said, not fooled for a single moment. "If you think it's best for the country that you go then of course you must go."

The Queen Mother watched Elsa fidget on the seat and couldn't help but think; _too young._ She didn't even need to look hard to see past the dress and the tiara and the makeup to see there was still a girl trapped inside the woman.

Sometimes Idunn thought that the line of Arendelle was cursed to burn at both ends. Her husband had been the same. Agdar had been a late child and it was less surprising when his father had died of a heart attack, and his mother soon after (of a stroke, officially, but they both knew she had hurried to meet him). They had already been married and with Elsa on the way when Agdar had the crown lowered onto his head for the first time, and comments had been made about his relative youth, especially for one of the last absolute monarchies in the world. But he had been ready, bursting with ideas for Arendelle that would pave the way for modernisation beyond Grandfather's wildest dreams. He had opened disused land to development, invited geologists and scientists into the country to make use of the practically-free power that shone down on the country and gushed from underground vents. He'd taken the unprecedented step of opening the lower-mountain to mining companies. It had all paid off, in the end. For its small size Arendelle had one of the cleanest cities in all Europe, as well as a thriving scientific community. Now the final step that had seen nationalists screaming for his head looked to be the biggest victory of all. Then all of that had faded away as the fatigue had set in, and stayed past being a seasonal flue, and past the first round of pills and treatment, and finally past the final unclear diagnosis. Now he was forced to pass the torch and simply watch.

How cruel Elsa should find herself in the same position as her father but even earlier. As if fate had watched him thrive and said to his daughter; _here then, once more, but worse._

Now Elsa looked like she was going to shine even brighter than her father. Idunn just worried she would crumble first from the pressure. Or rot in this old castle with nobody but staff and employees around her, and a sick father and his caretaker. If there was one ray of light lately it was these foreign visits. Elsa had come back from that awful man's party happier than she had ever seen her before. Elsa's happiness wasn't in leaping about the castle smiling and singing. She was more like her father in that. Elsa's happiness was a slight smile staring out of the window, or leaning back and relaxing in her chairs.

"Yes. Yes I think it would be. Best, that is."

 _This_ was new though. Her little Elsa was a lot of things but 'distracted' had never been one of them. "Are you feeling alright darling?"

Elsa blinked. "Yes mother, just a little tired." Tired- _er_.

"Is Gerda letting you get enough sleep?" Idunn asked, and knew the answer was probably 'barely'.

"Of course. It's just a complicated time."

"It sounds like a visit aboard would do you some good," she said. Now where had she seen this behaviour before? It was very famili- ah. Of course. "Elsa?"

"Mother?"

"Have you… _met_ someone?"

The response was immediate, and Idunn resisted the urge to smile. Even if it was in happiness. Elsa would have suspected she was being laughed at, and by her own mother would have made it infinitely worse.

Elsa blushed and her fingers seemed to speed up in their attempts to unravel the leather chair she sat on. "What! It…not really? I met a friend, or at least I might have _made_ a friend?" Elsa said. Idunn had the chair re-upholstered once a month or so, but always left a little strand free for Elsa to tease at. She wondered if her daughter realised she had tugged apart the chair maybe five times over.

This explained the happiness. "That's wonderful Elsa," she said, and meant it. The crown had stripped away Elsa's friends like a sander removing useless wood from a beam. Elsa had tried to keep up with them, sometimes furiously so with invitations and arrangements and trips, but after the coronation there simply hadn't been time in the end, and she had let them drift away. The companions she had sweat blood to make at university had been turned into Christmas cards once a year. "What are they like?"

Elsa told her, and Idunn watched as her daughter's eyes lit up in a way that was far, far too rare these days of mining permits and signing ceremonies. "Is this the reason for the sudden interest in the opera?" she risked a tease. "See the old singers, then sneak out and hit the town?"

"I doubt she'll be there, she's not really…I mean she's a congresswoman and junior, I think that matters? It will be just their President and a few others," Elsa said, but her voice betrayed her and Idunn heard otherwise. She wanted it. She wondered if this Anna knew the effect she had had on the young queen. She had better. Idunn wouldn't accept people who treated her little baby lightly.

"In my experience if someone wants something enough, they can make it happen." Agdar had always said that, before this wretched affliction had bound him to these rooms, forced to stay forever close to medical equipment and a bed. "Have you told your father?"

"Is he awake?" Elsa asked, her hands pausing in their eternal task.

Idunn smiled. "For his precious girl making a new friend he wouldn't stay asleep if all the devils of hell were keeping his eyes shut."

* * *

Anna leaned over her favourite employee's desk. "I need help."

"Certainly ma'am."

"Alice _please_ , just call me Anna!"

Alice looked as if Anna had just suggested they both streak naked through the capitol. "I don't think I could really do that ma'am, not with you being my employee and all."

Once day she was just going to straight-up ask if Alice was putting it on or whether she really was some kind of deep cover sleeper agent for Her Majesty. Her last day of office probably, God knows what kind of mess the office would be in without her. "Whatever. I need help. How do I find out what a visiting dignitary likes?"

Alice's eyes lit up. "Her Majesty Queen Elsa?"

Strike two, the British loved monarchy. Anna would reveal the spy before the year was out. _No, focus._ "I need- I want to give her a gift when she visits officially, but I have no clue what to give her."

As if on cue Kai stuck his head around the corner of Anna's private room into the outer office. "Generally the _President_ presents gifts to visiting dignitaries-"

"And he'll give her one of those little marble statues and a copy of the Bill of Rights!" Anna shout back. "That's about as personal as a sweater from an old grandmother. I mean I want to give her something that will _mean_ something to her." She turned back to Anna. "How do we do this?"

Alice brushed a stray lock of blonde hair from her eyes – Alice always had amazing hair, somehow – and sat back in her chair, which creaked. For a long ten seconds Anna feared that the woman had wandered off into her own little world again, but: "Generally information like _that_ is kept by the Gift Unit."

"Anna…" Kai's voice warned from beyond the two wooden doors. "I forbid you to-"

"No way am I asking the White House about this." A junior congresswoman asking for the personal information of a foreign head of state? No. She'd already called in a couple of her biggest favours and made a couple of promises to her new…suitors…to get into the reception party at all. She hadn't managed a spot next to her or anything, but she'd be nearby with a couple of other senators who had interests in the entire situation, just a few seats away from the box the President and Her Majesty would be occupying. That was close enough.

"Then I suppose we have to look outside the system," Alice said.

"How do you mean?" Anna asked, but Alice had already turned away from her boss to one of the nameless young interns who populated the office of every lawmaker in the city. She listened as Alice asked a question, and her stomach wrenched. " _Really?_ " she asked.

"Of course ma'am, the newspapers have always been a good source of information on this sort of gossip.

"Not newspapers Alice, tabloids." Somewhere out in the city Pabby was shouting "worthless rags" into the air without knowing why.

"Certainly ma'am. But this _is_ your best chance. Records are usually kept, and all of them have online archives."

On a hunch Anna twisted around, and yep, there he was. Kai stood at the doors that linked the office, an unsympathetic smile on his face. "Don't say a word," she warned him.

"I'll inform your father your visit may be delayed, as you are currently up to your arms in muck."

" _Our_ arms," Anna said. No way at all was she going to suffer searching through endless tabloids alone, _no way_. "Alice, you know where I live right?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Oh now Anna this is truly cruel of you."

She ignored him. "Alice, have you ever had a – and I don't believe I'm saying this at my age – a sleepover?"

* * *

"Father?"

It used to be that just hearing that word from her lips would light up Agdar's face. It was so clear in Elsa's memories. She would walk in and ask for him and he would turn and smile down at her, and whatever problem she was having would feel halved just from knowing that he was there and he cared so much for her.

Now the best he could manage was a tired smile from eyes that were so heavy with fatigue they looked almost sunken and black. "My darling."

She perched on the edge of the bed, careful not to disturb his body under the covers, or the tubes that scattered around him oddly. The the room could have been a normal bedroom wooden end-tables and all. She remembered that from her childhood too. In winter she would wake an hour early and crawl into her parent's bed, to nestle between them in warmth for a couple of quick hours before they had to wake. She knew he kept it the same way year after year for her and her mother, tried to make it look like he was just having a quick afternoon nap rather than the truth. But it had never fooled her for even a single second. If nothing else, the IV bags up by the headboard that her mother replaced more and more regularly would have broken the illusion. "How are you?"

It must have been a good day, as Agdar managed to lever himself to a sitting position with his elbows with only a little help from his wife. "I'm fine Elsa, just fine. What's this I hear about the opera? Make an old man happy and say you've seen the light."

She couldn't resist a smile, even here, in a room that had once contained so much joy for her and now only brought a sadness that made her feel immense guilt. God, she loved him so much. "Unfortunately not."

"She isn't going to the opera for the _opera_ , dear," Idunn teased her husband. "She's more intent on the people she's going to the opera _with_."

"If the American President thinks he's going to date _my_ daughter then…"

"Father, please." Surely all fathers didn't make awful jokes like this? "It's just a friend, that's all."

Agdar just smiled. "I'm delighted Elsa. Who are they?"

"Her name's Anna," Elsa said, and went on to talk about it all, from the Weselton party to the opera trip. For a few minutes she forgot about the room and the tubes and the bags under her father's eyes that kept him confined to the inner castle, close to medical equipment and a trained nurse, and she was sixteen again and talking about her first semester in university. From the outside, to Agdar and Idunn, they watched as some of the tiredness that had shrouded their little girl – and regardless of her age or the crown on her head she would _always_ be their little girl – since the coronation seemed to just float away from her.

"She sounds wonderfully kind," Agdar said, as Elsa finished with a smile on her face. _Especially compared to the bunch of those vultures I've met before._ "I'd love to meet her."

"Well it's unlikely," Elsa said with a shrug, as if it barely mattered to her. She didn't fool either of them for a second though.

"You should try," Idunn said, as kindly but as firmly as she could manage without sounding overly motherly. If left to her own devices eventually Elsa _would_ convince herself that it was no big deal. She could just be so stubborn that way. She would think herself through a labyrinth of self-justification and come out the other end believing it was actually _better_ that they not meet, for whatever reason she would talk herself into, and that would be the end of it. She had seen the same happen with the few friends Elsa had made at university. She didn't want it to happen again. "You should do something nice for her."

"Oh, I don't really know if it would be appropriate to-"

"Nonsense," Agdar said. "There's nothing wrong with giving gifts to people when you're in their country. How do you think I seduced your mother?"

Elsa blushed scarlet. "Father!"

"You should find something she likes and at least mail it to her." Idunn put her hand on Elsa's shoulder. "It's always a pleasure to meet new people."

 _That_ at least Elsa wasn't going to deny.

* * *

"Anna what on _earth_ are you doin- oh, hello Alice."

"Good evening Mrs Maldon."

"Girl what did I say the last time we met? Call me Tiana."

"Don't bother, she won't listen," Anna said, tripping and wheezing her way up the stairs to the brownstone she called home. Tiana watched in disbelief at the load she carried in her arms; what had to be two or three dozen newspapers. Not just any regular newspapers either, the shiny plasticky material that would have screamed _tabloid_ if the giant bold letterings and celebrity close-ups on the front hadn't done it already. "Excuse me. _Ooooh god_ , that's better," she said in relief as she crossed the threshold and dropped her papery weight inside the front door.

Tiana looked at the pile of tabloids like a dog that had just done its business in her porch. "What on _earth_ are you doing Anna?" she said, in a tone that made it damn clear she had better have a good explanation. It reminded Anna of her mother.

"Research."

"Don't you have people who do this for you? Doesn't _Alice_ do this for you?"

"Well today we both are," Anna said, heaving the pile back into her arms and making for the stairs up to her room. The weird quiet one followed after her like a faithful dog.

Tiana couldn't help it, she was curious. There was something… _happier_ …about Anna, that hadn't been there this morning. Usually the pale thing went to work at the crack of dawn barely awake and came home at sunset, barely awake. In Tiana's experience that meant a job _and_ a boyfriend, but the man who forwarded her tenants – Kai – had nixed the latter pretty fast. And what was with that stack of trash paper?

When Tiana entered Anna's room a few minutes later the pair had already gotten started. Anna had changed out of her suit and into some scraggly old sweatpants and a sweater, sprawled out on the floor at the foot of the bed. Alice was in – swear to the Lord – a blue dress that could have come from the middle ages, her legs folded demurely under her like she was at a garden party. Both of them sat on the floor. "Alright, what are you two girls up to?"

"Looking for information," Anna said, as she picked up the first tabloid from the waist-high pile, and flicked it open to the contents page.

"In that junk?"

"Her Majesty is visiting the opera, and Ms Summerford intends to present her with a gift!" Alice intoned happily. "But she doesn't know what would be best. I suggested a small porcelain figure, such as a cowboy or horse that they have in Texas, that she can put on a desk or mantelpiece to see and admire, but…"

"No," Anna said, instantly, in a voice which made clear she'd been through this subject before.

"No," Tiana agreed quickly. Wait. "'Her Majesty'?"

"Queen Elsa, of Arendelle."

Tiana looked at Anna. To Anna's credit, she only blushed a little bit. "When I said make some friends you really took it to heart, huh sugar?"

"Maybe."

 _You adorable little creature._ Tiana wished she could have been from Texas, if it got her a rep like Anna. Well, maybe not.

"Is she upset?" Alice asked in polite confusion as Tiana left.

"I don't _think_ so. Maybe if we…" She trailed off as the woman came back in a second later, her customary yellow dress replaced with jeans and a shirt. Admittedly the shirt was still yellow. "Tiana?"

"Six eyes are better than four."

"Oh _thank you._ Thankyouthankyouthankyou."

"Don't thank me 'till you know what chores you'll be doing all next month." Tiana picked up a tabloids, and the three girls started reading.

* * *

Elsa liked to watch the sun go down.

From the northernmost corridor of the castle she could look out across the river and the town, all the way up to the mountain itself. As the ball of fire dipped underneath the snow for the day the light bloomed, reflected from the white surface, and for a moment it looked like frozen Arendelle was at the heart of the sun itself.

_Something Anna would like._

The thought ran through her mind in a circle, like an athlete so fast it kept lapping the others and reminding them of his existence. She would be thinking about the contracts to be arbitrated by her staff and the budget for the year to be confirmed, and the preparations to be made for the upcoming trip, and the thought would run by them all and she would find her attention dragged away to it. She'd be thinking about what she'd be presenting to the American President as a gift and somehow it would slip from her mind and she'd wonder whether Anna liked that of thing. In truth she had no clue, and it had been driving her crazier all day. Heads of state were _expected_ to trade innocuous or meaningless gifts that represented something about their country. Elsa had heard the stories about the little statues and the Bill of Rights already and wondered if she should do the same, but somehow she doubted a small statue of a mountain and a copy of the announcement proclaiming her great-to-the _-n th_ ancestor the ruler of all the land, anointed of God and defender of the faith, would go over well in a constitutional republic.

She'd had friends, in the past. What had they liked? Surely there was something all of them had enjoyed in common that would serve? But that just brought her back around to the same problem; she didn't want it to be _a present,_ she wanted it to be _Anna's present._

Elsa caught herself rubbing her hands together, and pulled them apart. This was ridiculous. This was…this was downright _silly_. She was a _queen_ , she had responsibilities to a nation and she had problems that were utterly colossal. She needed to worry about how she could corral the US President into jerking the reins of the mining industry that was breathing down her neck and making increasingly loud demands. She needed to find a way to get wealth out of her mountain without trading away her sovereignty to do it. She needed to calm down her own countrymen who were only seeing the riches and not the dangers. She _did not_ need to worry about a gift for a woman she barely knew and probably wouldn't even meet next month.

But here she was anyway, pacing up and down the corridor like a love-struck teenager as the sun finally sunk under the mountain, the street-lights in the city below alighting one by one to make pinpricks of white in the darkness.

She couldn't go on like this. "Kristoff."

"Elsa?" he asked, and she knew they were alone in the corridor. Good.

"I need your help with something."

"Is this about Anna?"

Elsa's head whirled fast enough to make her neck spin. "How did you?"

The blonde lump shrugged. "Come on Elsa, I've known you long enough. What's the problem?"

She explained, and the more she did the more she felt that blush, which seemed to have started with her father's joke and never really went away all day, creep up even further onto her cheeks.

Kristoff was who she needed. He was practical, reliable. He got things done. Granted every member of her detail was the same, but unlike Marshall or the other guards around her there was a gentler side to him as well, that he only brought out with those he trusted. She'd always known he had it, even before he had joined the Security Service, when he was just another grunt fresh out of Arendelle Reserves and in the Protective Services, and she was a crown princess trying to get through her education intact and driving her new security detail crazy. Kristoff had been assigned to her because he looked like he actually belonged in a university – and a member of every sports club on campus at that – and they'd grown closer than was probably appropriate for a bodyguard and his principle. Not _that_ close, regardless of what certain gossipy rags liked to print, but he had been a rock when she needed one.

He nodded as she explained through the blush. "So let me get this straight. You're going to the opera as a diplomatic visit."

"Yes."

"

"You talked with Anna a while back, why didn't you ask her then?"

"Well, that was just more of a quick social call," Elsa said, and there went her fingers entwining themselves again. "We…I mentioned maybe arranging a visit…at some point?"

Kristoff stared at his queen. "Elsa do you even know if she's going to be there?"

"She'll be there."

"Will she?"

"…Maybe?"

" _Elsa_ ," Kristoff sighed. It was like being back at the university again. "You really are bad at this."

"At what?"

"People. Meeting them." _Keeping them,_ he didn't say. That part wasn't her fault, after all. It was a lonely job.

"Says the man who buys gourmet dog-food." She would have smiled but she felt too nervous. "I really need your help Kristoff."

Kristoff resisted the urge to make a joke, only because he could see how _worried_ Elsa was about the whole thing. It was something he really hadn't seen since they had been at university, a student and her undercover friend/partner. In fact the last time he had seen her this way was when she had studied too long and accidentally caused a friend to miss a job interview. She had spent a week feeling guilty, then pored until midnight over websites and messages to try and find something to make it up to her. In the end the wronged girl had brushed it off as an honest mistake, but Elsa _worried._ She worried and fretted and she only asked for help as a last resort. Maybe it wasn't entirely healthy but it was how she was, and he hated to see her wrapped inside her own head, especially these days. "I'll see what I can do," he said.

Instantly Elsa seemed to deflate a few inches, as if the stress had been physically keeping her up. "Thank you so much."

"A pleasure, your _majesty_."

She bopped him playfully on the arm. "Stop it," she said, and smiled. If the man said he was going to see what he could do, that meant he was going to get it done. She felt so much better. Thank God for Kristoff.

* * *

Thank God for Tiana and Alice.

"I don't know how much longer I can do this kiddo."

"Stay with me. Alice, help me keep Tiana awake."

"I can't ma'am. I may perish."

"We've made _some_ progress."

"Anna I sincerely doubt your budget stretches to bespoke Versace." Tiana threw down a glossy magazine, opened to a picture of the queen taken at a dinner somewhere in Europe. "Honestly girl I don't think you're going to find out what she wants like _this._ "

Anna sighed. It was hours later and she was beginning to agree with her landlord-slash-friend. The tabloids were…well… _tabloids._ Pages and pages on how glamourous she was, more pages about her hair and dress, pages wondering what about whether she was seeing any young princes. But Queen Elsa didn't _speak_ to anyone. So there was nothing about her private life. A little bit about her abdicated father the King but no information why, a little bit about where she had studied in childhood but nothing from her friends back then. She was just an infuriating closed book, she let nothing in. In all the pictures there was an expression of polite…well… _disinterest_ , was all Anna could describe it as. She should know, in government she had seen it used enough. It was the expression you used when you couldn't tell someone they were boring and walk off but had to stand there until they got the hint. In all the pictures it was there; she looked fabulous and bored out of her skull.

Which was _strange_ because that hadn't been the Elsa she had met or talked with, not at the garden party and not over the phone last week. The woman she had met had been just so _nice,_ and warm and talkative, maybe even a little nervous. She had a great smile and her eyes had lit up when she had talked about her country. She had been enchanting. Nothing like the distant and emotionless ice queen these papers were painting her as.

"She likes snowflakes."

Anna looked up from the tabloid in her lap in despair and not a little fatigue. "Hmm?" Alice's head was already back down on the pages and Anna might have thought she was imagining things if she didn't know the strange young woman better. "What was that Alice?"

"The queen likes snowflakes."

Anna and Tiana shared a glance, the black woman raising a single confused eyebrow. Anna shuffled closer on the floor 'till she was next to the woman. "Say what? How? Why?"

Alice brought up the scissor-cut pieces of magazine she had been collecting, the ones Anna had thought she was making a collage from or something. "Look, she likes snowflakes because she's always wearing one," she said gently, as if talking to a pair of stubborn children.

"I don't…"

Alice stretched and brought more pieces up. "Look ma'am." She pointed. "A ring." Pointed. "Small necklace." Pointed. "Dress cufflinks."

"She's right," Anna and Tiana both said at the same time, bringing up tabloids of their own. It only took them a second, and then another fifteen minutes to confirm it. Whenever Elsa was photographed outside of her own country she wore a small snowflake, somewhere on her body. It wasn't even jewellery all the time either. Sometimes it was sown into the fabric of the dress she was wearing. Anna remembered now, she had been wearing one embroidered into her gorgeous dress the night they had met.

 _This is it._ She could do this. Something small that mattered to her, to show her that someone really did care, and not just trying to curry favour for a shot at that huge treasure mountain. She didn't realise she had said it out loud 'till Tiana replied.

"Well, that's easy enough. Trading these trashy rags out for Tiffany catalogues is something I can get behind." Tiana clapped her hands. "Better yet I know some brothers who run a precious gems and jewellery store on the east side, you can ask them."

"Me? Not us? I thought we were doing a thing"

Tiana brushed off her jeans from the dusty carpet and stood. "Little girl you're on your own now, I just felt sorry for the blonde here." She threw a thumb in Alice's direction, who was happily flicking through the horoscopes. "Besides, look at the time."

Anna did so. Oh, god, they'd been at this a while. She had done it again, become so totally engrossed in something that she'd forgotten other people maybe weren't quite so invested. She felt a rush of shame come to her cheeks and stood. "Sorry! I'm sorry, of course. Thanks for your help."

Tiana gave Anna a confused look, then a smile. "Don't worry yourself, happy to help one of my tenants in trouble. Especially one who's going to have quite a workload in exchange."

Anna smiled. Worth it. She opened her mouth to say _thanks_ again but all that came out of her mouth was a huge yawn.

Alice stood. "Anything else I can help you with ma'am?"

The girl was just utterly unreal. "No thanks Alice, thanks so much for all of today." There would be something nice on Alice's desk some next week, she promised herself. Maybe a pillow.

Anna waved Alice down the street and went back in, Tiana already having vanished to her own set of rooms on the top floor with her husband, and she was left alone in her room. She collapsed onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling, feeling good. Feeling _great._ It had been such a good week. She'd made real actual progress at her job, and the way she had dreamed she would, _and_ she'd managed to swing tickets to the Presidential bash, _and_ she'd figured out something she could do for Elsa that wouldn't come off as cheap tacky trash. A _great_ week.

Now she just needed to find the _exact_ right thing, and somehow figure out a way to get both of them in the same room next month to give it to her. But she could think about _that_ tomorrow.

It was almost three in the morning when Anna finally closed the browser app and put her phone on charge.


	5. Chapter 5

The Kennedy Centre at night glowed a beautiful green colour, the glass walls lit up from the lights inside so that as their car approached Anna saw it across the river as a beautiful box made of jade and gold.

At the same time as she saw living in it as an inconvenience and a nuisance, Anna loved Washington. People said that New York was _the_ place to be, but for Anna the smaller city was just so much more _important._ If she had been a private citizen she would have found a way to move and live here even if it meant sweeping the floors at a bar. The first time she had come, hopping off three different trains and a bus in two days, her first stop hadn't even been the local hostel. She had made a beeline for the National Mall, practically running all the way, and had stood at the base of the obelisk. She had looked across the great reflecting pool down to the Lincoln Memorial with a giant goofy grin on her face, surrounding on all sides by huge centres of art and history and culture, and thought; _I love it here._

Years later, and she still did.

"All ready, congresswoman?" Kai asked. She was _congresswoman_ now, not _Anna._

"All ready," she said, and adjusted her dress one last time before the car drew to a stop. She wasn't wearing the same dress as she had at the Weselton ball – god forbid a woman of importance wear the same two dresses, ever – but it was similar enough that, for example, if someone happened to be watching out for a woman in a green dress that had a small stitched band of flowers along the collar, her current sleeveless number with elbow-length velvet gloves was probably close enough. The flowers that were stitched onto the backs of her hands weren't crocuses, but bluebonnets were probably close enough. She _was_ still here to represent her state after all.

_Yeah, let's not forget that Anna, alright?_

"How do I look?" she asked, for what had to be the tenth time. At this point it was basically a nervous tic she asked whenever she looked out of the window and saw the Centre growing ever-closer.

"You look lovely ma'am," Alice said, the same way she had replied every time, not a hint of impatience in her soul god bless her.

"Kai?"

Her chief of staff on the other hand was no such saint. "You are fine Anna, as I continue to say."

The door swung open at the hands of the secret serviceman she had been assigned to for the night, and as daintily as she could manage Anna stepped out into the cool Washington night. Not that you'd know. Cameras started flashing the second she popped her head out, and this time not the tiny little cameras and phones of the cheap media. The _real_ , thousand-watt-flashbulb cameras that lit up every molecule around them and tuned the dark evening into high noon. She put a pleasant smile on and didn't shield her eyes as the secret serviceman helped her out of the limo, wondering if she'd still have use of her eyes tomorrow. Never mind trying to find _her¸s_ he thought she might have trouble spotting _anyone_ due to the very real chance of her being blinded in the next five minutes. "How about an escort inside?" she asked the huge man who had gently helped her from the limo.

"Certainly ma'am." The man spoke into his microphone, and Anna glided past the carpet towards the doors. She glanced upwards and saw a perfect night above her, not a cloud in the evening sky. It felt like one of those perfect days you pray for when you have a big test, or a hot date. Or in her case; an opera attended by two heads of state and a handful of the most influential senators in the House.

 _The same routine Anna, just on a bigger stage,_ she told herself, and tried to believe it. _Oh god but it's_ such _a bigger stage, and if I mess up it won't just be my parents watching me._

"Congresswoman!"

She let the bulk of the guard shield her from the worst flashes of the reporters that clustered outside, the ones who were either too poor or too…sensationalist…to get into the ball where their elders and betters would be. Lack of access just made them bitter though, and made the shouted questions worse.

" _Congresswoman!"_

"Anna! Over here!"

"Is it true you've been dealing with democrats to force your education reforms through?"

"Is it true you've been meeting with lobbyists about gun control laws?"

 _What the…?_ She spun around, eyes wide, caught off-guard and un-protected. But she couldn't see whoever had shouted from the melee of cameras and shouted questions. Just a tangle of young men blaring questions at her, blending into a mess of bad suits and terrible beards and…

_Red hair?_

She felt a jolt run through her, gone as soon as it had arrived as finally she left the gauntlet that was the red carpet, and her silent escort walked her through the glass doors. The noise intensified into a roar that threatened to knock her off her feet as she stepped into the main foyer, leaving the throng of reporters and neck-craning groupies and exchanging them for the…well…for the reporters who had the prestige to give in, and more groupies. Much better-dressed ones though.

If the outside was a shining beacon made of glass, the inside was a temple to the arts it held. Pristine white pillars held up a high ceiling that was dotted with beautiful chandeliers, making the entire room glow as she entered. Unlike a temple though where people walked softly and talked reverently, tonight the hall was filled with the dull roar of hundreds of people all talking at once. A sea of tuxedos filled the place, an equal number of dresses mixed in among them. A few looked her way as she entered. Some noted her arrival as just one more pretty face or debutante at a social function, but a few others noticed her face and realised who she was. A few fingers pointed, a few nods from people she recognised from the House.

The worry and anxiety she had expected wasn't there in her chest. Instead she felt…calm. Like she was here not as some intruder or interloper but like she _should_ be here. _This isn't going to be so bad after all._ She held her clutch tightly to herself. _Now if only I could find…_ But the royal delegation would already be in their seats, out of the way of the throngs of lesser dignitaries all fighting for a small piece of the spotlight.

"Anna."

 _And now we start._ With a severe effort she pushed the thoughts of…a certain rendezvous out of her mind, and put her best Pretty Little Texas Wildflower smile on as she turned to see Congressman Stone approaching her, almost knocking aside a huge penguin of a man in his haste to get over to her. Her more senior partner in congress wasn't…actively frowning, which was as close as the man usually got to a smile. "Richard, good evening."

No small-talk, all business. "You got on the list then. Did you give anything away?"

 _You arrogant asshole._ "No," she said, not trusting herself to speak more. "I'm not here to lobby." _Unlike you_ , she didn't say to her esteemed colleague the good Richard Stone, senior congressman for Texas. She bit her tongue, just in case it slipped out anyway. The relationship between state congressmen took a lot of forms. In some cases older, more experienced and well-entrenched seniors had been almost mentors to their younger comrades. She'd never had that relationship with Stone though. He was just so… _cold._ Cold and bloodless, like his namesake. Sometimes she wondered if one of the reasons she had beat Westergard had been because even if she was young and a woman and a little more _left_ than Texas liked, there would still be Richard Stone squatting above her, keeping the right well-tended.

"So why?" the steely-eyed older man asked.

"To return a favour," she said, and gripped her clutch tightly. Not too tightly though, lest she crush the slim little box inside.

"Richard!"

The gaze between them was broken as – _thank God_ – Patrick Anderson walked out of the throng of man-shaped penguins and woman-shaped rainbows like a scruffy, ill-kempt Jesus parting the Red Sea. Even in a definitely-rented tuxedo there was something vaguely disreputable-looking about the man. It was crunched up at the shoulders and armpits, and the shirt underneath was _just_ off-white enough to make you stare hard to wonder if you were going nuts. The bowtie was…oh god the bowtie. It obviously hadn't come from whatever rental place he'd gotten the rest of the suit from since no clotheshorse on all of planet earth would have ever rented a tuxedo with a green bow-tie that looked like it could have moss growing on it. Black boots – not shoes – completed the entire fascinating ensemble. One that Richard Stone was staring at as the reporter approached them.

" _Great_ to see you again!" Pabby said, grabbing the man's hand and shaking vigorously. "How _about_ this whole thing huh? Surprised they let an old warhorse like me in!" the old man gushed, as Anna fought to keep a smile from creeping across her face as at the same time Congressman Stone failed to keep a slight curl of distaste from his.

"Mr Anderson," he said through practically clenched teeth.

"Call me Pabby, like all my friends do!"

Richard Stone's eyes let him know what he thought of _that_ idea. "Of course. If you'll excuse me, I have to mingle."

"Sure!" The two of them watched as Richard stiffly extricated his hand from Pabby's, and shuffled away from the pair as quickly as they could. "Try not to kill anyone from boredom when you do," the old reporter muttered, and turned. "Hey kiddo."

"Hi Pabby."

"Anna my girl, it looks like you really took my advice to heart. From a backwater committee to escorting the President. Quite the career-climber I've helped create," he said, and smiled to let her be sure he was kidding. Coming from anyone else she might have struck back, but…

"That isn't why I'm here," Anna replied, a little peeved, but not much. This wasn't a drink and a meal at Gaston's. They were both here on work. _Work_ work. Something Anna had found out fairly early on in her political career; _the more the lights and the flashier the dresses, the bigger the stakes._

"Really? People are saying-"

"People?" Anna shot back. "Nameless 'people'? People who want to stir things up but don't want to get their hands dirty?"

"Those people, correct. They're saying you're quite the rising star now. Putting your oar in and making headway, throwing your net out and getting fish back at last, your foot in the door. Other metaphors."

Pabby's little book and pencil weren't in his hands but Anna knew he was taking notes nevertheless. "I'd hope that these _people_ would notice that their representative is doing the work she promised to do when they elected her." Urgh, how trite. Like somewhere there was a list of 'acceptable things to say' and every politician worked their way through all of them one by one.

 _Well Pabby let these 'people' know that after a boring, grinding, infuriating couple of years, Congresswoman Anna Summerford (R) is finally getting some work done, but only because a bunch of people higher up the food-chain are trying to curry some favour with her because they think she has a little connection with the newest member of the Struck It Filthy Rich-Club._ Maybe that's what she would say on her last day in office.

"Mmhmm," Pabby replied, who thought as much of those words as Anna herself did. He adjusted his ugly green bowtie, which failed to turn him from a slightly scraggly old man into a dashing elder in a tux. "So have any of your…suitors-"

"Oh come _on_."

"-approached you more directly yet about this magical connection only you seem to possess, which evidently nobody else has realised you intend to keep pristine instead of using to mine for political gold?"

"I don't think I'll be telling _you_ that," Anna replied, hoping her false scorn hid the real jolt she'd felt underneath at the question. Because she _had_ been approached by someone, hoping to lever the single night she'd spent in the company of the queen into something more. Not just any suitor either.

The biggest.

* * *

_Everyone feels it sometimes. Like realising you left the back gate unlocked the second you arrive at the party, or wondering if you forgot to put your name on your finals paper, or remembering you left your passport in your other coat as you arrive at the airport. A single beat, a little skip in the heart, a jolt of pure panic that starts in the middle of your chest and travels up to your brain and demands attention, that freezes your feet to the ground and trips you up if you try to take another step. Anything you were doing before it got there is tied up and thrown out of your head as the thought smashes through the door and shouts PANIC._

_When she was younger she'd hoped eventually the feeling would go away. That she wouldn't be tongue-tied when talking with a boy she liked or a girl she admired and who she wanted to like her. That she wouldn't suddenly forget her answers during a job interview and babble incoherently. It had, eventually, thank god. Speech training had helped – had been damn near necessary when she had finally decided on her career path – and now she could do things like hold a conversation without her mouth betraying her or her tongue spewing out words she really didn't want it to. But still, sometimes it came back when she least wanted or expected it. Like now._

_It's the same for everyone dear, the very nice old lady had told her after leaving the office when she had taken her private oath. She'd stood there as the door had clicked shut behind her and she had found herself back in the real world, breathless, a little star-struck and an actual real-life sworn-in member of the United States House of Representatives. She'd blinked like someone stepping into sunlight after days in a dark cave, and the old lady – his personal secretary – had given her a candy from a bowl. Maybe she kept it there for that very purpose. She'd taken it without really thinking as she'd slowly come back down to earth._

_She'd been back two or three times since then so she wasn't exactly a newbie at the process anymore. Still though, it was never really something she had gotten the hang of. The little shock never really went away._

" _Congresswoman? The President is ready to see you now."_

Yep, still there _. She stepped forward and was grateful when her feet didn't collapse under her. It felt unfair somehow that the entrance to that room was such an unassuming oak door. Not even any scrollwork or a title above it, or a gold edge. You simply opened the door on the curved wall and you were inside._

_He smiled at her as she entered. He had a cute smile. Everyone said so._

" _Ms Summerford, a seldom pleasure. Can I call you Anna, or do I need to buy you dinner first?"_

Oh god, don't blush _. "Anna's fine, Mr President." His hand felt warm as she shook it._

" _Please, have a seat."_

_He gestured at the centre of the room where the same two couches and glass table sat where she remembered from her last visit. The last time she had been here she hadn't even spoken, just stood there behind Stone as the man had made whatever point he had been there to make and she had been his backup. The first time had been her oath and she had been in the room for maybe ten minutes. Now here she was, front and centre. She sat down next to the President's chief of staff, a greying old man who hadn't taken eyes off her from the second she had walked into the Oval. Legend had it the man had a little folder for every member of congress, J. Edgar-style. She wondered idly what was in hers. "What can I do for you mister President?"_

_Well," the man said. "It's funny you should ask."_

* * *

"Do I look alright?"

She bit her lip as she twisted around in the seat, trying to see herself from every angle. The fact that she was trying to do so in a tiny car mirror didn't help much.

"Your majesty please, you'll crease your dress," Gerda said, scolding her like she would a small child with the easy confidence of someone who wasn't about to step out of a limo and into the waiting arms of the world's press.

"You look fine ma'am," Eva reassured her, sitting cross-legged on the seats opposite her in something long and black that was cut up the thigh, her long dark curled and coifed into something indescribable. She looked effortlessly fabulous. _Fine_ coming from Eva would do.

She adjusted one last time and stared through the one-way glass out into the dark Washington night. Such a shame she hadn't had a chance to explore the place a little before the opera, but between the jet-lag and the heat she hadn't dared do anything but fall asleep on the ambassador's bed. The _heat_. She hadn't expected it. Somehow she had assumed that the start of fall would bring some kind of reasonable weather, but fate and God had conspired against her and Elsa had practically dripped away her own bodyweight in sweat between the plane landing and them arriving at the embassy. Not being able to _find_ the embassy for a good five minutes hadn't helped.

 _Maybe that will change soon,_ she thought to herself, as the limo pulled in to the front of the opera-house. It had a real name but she forgot it. Everything in this town seemed to be named after someone else. The camera-flashes, which had seemed blinding even through the darkened glass, had petered out as they approached. Like they were soldiers all waiting to see the whites of her eyes before they started shooting. There wouldn't be any quaint little snaps and then ignorance like at the Weselton party this time. This time she'd be front and centre, the main attraction.

 _The President of the United States invites HRM Elsa Arendelle to…_ The letter had been waiting for them when they arrived, printed on the kind of paper that cost enough to get you a decent meal at a good restaurant. Only a few sentences, but all that the man had needed to drive through the reality of the situation when she had spent the last few weeks on autopilot just doing her job. It seemed like whenever she finally got comfortable, whenever the little voice inside her head spoke up to say _yes, you can handle this, this is fine,_ something would come up. When she had finally been comfortable as a working adult her father had abdicated and she had become queen. When she finally thought she was able to handle the wheel of the oversized and unwieldy ship known as Arendelle Domestic Policy the outside world had come knocking with contracts her father had signed. When she finally thought she was beginning to earn respect as Queen Elsa of Arendelle and not Crown Princess Elsa, a pile of riches that countries would kill for had been dumped onto her lap.

And when she finally thought she was getting used to the idea that her closest friends would be her chief of staff and her bodyguard, the outside world had come knocking once more, to dangle the shining, twinkling promise of friendship in her face, and she just hadn't been able to stop herself from reaching out and grasping for it.

* * *

_The cloth felt scratchy over her skin, even though it was made out of the best silk they had been able to buy. The pale blue scarf over her shoulders felt heavy, even though it was so fine it was practically a gauze. The shoes felt tight around her feet even though they were bespoke, sewn and formed that morning._

_She remembered, as a child, being with her mother when they had went to government functions. Parties for charity, exhibitions for some artist that Queen Idunn liked, important birthdays, and so on. Sometimes there was a diplomatic visit at the castle, or the annual Christmas party. Or when neither of them could avoid it dragged along to the opera or a play by the King. She remembered looking up at her mother in gowns and dresses and exquisitely-tailored suits and being stunned that she got to hold the hand of such an angel. At five she had been too young to feel inferior, but records existed, and she had watched them all and seen her mother smiling and dancing and waving her way through life like a tranquil goddess. In comparison to that easy elegance and flowing grace, Elsa felt like a woman made up of jagged edges and shaky movements, a clockwork-woman whose spring was winding down. She pretended and copied as best she could but she still felt a pale imitation of her mother. Like a girl playing dress-up in her parent's closet._

_She still remembered her first royal occasion; the coronation ball. It had been a hellish experience of a thousand names both greeting and consoling her, a night she barely remembered and frankly didn't really want to. How good could she have looked, with barely a week of instruction, five hours of learning how to ballroom dance sandwiched between her security briefing and her economic advisor? She still flat-out refused to watch the videos of the day._

_She felt her hands turn warm and itchy under her gloves at the thought of it, and turned away from the mirror to put the images out of her mind before it could get any worse. Her ambassador to the US had been very gracious about his cosy little building – nowhere near the size of those belonging to nations the US actually deemed important – being basically turned into a series of rooms to allow his queen to prepare herself for the night ahead._

_She watched as Eva flicked through the racks that had been set up in the small drawing room, flicking through with a practised hand. Technically Elsa had ushers and staff whose entire job it was to dress her, make sure she wasn't wearing the wrong colours in the wrong country and so on. But Eva had the same gift as her mother for impeccable style, and Eva knew what Elsa liked. Eva also didn't question why Elsa insisted on gloves with every outfit._

" _This?" Eva picked up a dress idly from the rack. It looked expensive enough to feed a dozen households. This part of preparing for trips always made Elsa nervous. The castle she worked in, fine. The jewels, the ornate decoration and the crown; national symbols of Arendelle fine. But high fashion price-tags made her skin crawl just a little. Soon enough you'll have the capital to build a home for every soul in the country, she told herself, which helped._

" _No." It looked nice enough, but she hated red, no matter the shade._

" _That's a shame, the designer is quite the fan." It went back into the rack with a clink of coat-hanger on metal. "I'll send him a gift-basket. This?"_

_This, this time, she liked it more. A dark purple velvet, with a reddish hue on the accoutrements that almost looked like a corset. But… "It looks made for someone…older." Or someone headed for a very tasteful funeral._

_The dress went back into the rack and the tall dark-haired woman turned towards her. "Your majesty, we both know where this is going," Eva said, a hair's-breadth away from an actual sigh. She brushed a hand against the rack, over a few dresses that all had a similar hue in common._

" _I like blue," Elsa replied, and tried to sound more like a Queen and less like a child trying to justify wearing the same clothing two days in a row. "It looks good on me."_

" _I certainly wouldn't disagree."_

" _Sorry?"_

" _Nothing your majesty. If you're sure…let's see what we have."_

_Elsa watched Eva browse the racks like an apprentice carpenter watching their master carve, brushing a hand against one dress and picking at the sleeve of another, not even lifting them out to judge them before throwing them back as unworthy._

_She wanted it to be right. No, not just right, not just wanted. She_ needed _this to be_ perfect _. This wasn't Weselton's ball with a few dozen paps after any star they could catch, and her an afterthought. This was the President of the United States, in the seat of his power, and she needed to dazzle him. Enough that he might be amenable to…assisting her…with some fellow countrymen who were still out there on her mountain, giving her grief._

_And she wanted to dazzle anyone else who turned up. Nobody specific. But if anyone was looking at her she wanted them to be impressed with her._

_Nobody specific._

" _This," Eva said, not a question but a statement, and Elsa knew she had picked the right one as it swung out from the rack and settled. A floor-length cobalt-blue gown, straight and unruffled. At the neck it split, a thin winding V-neck like a stream that went to the breastbone, pure white silk covering the skin revealed by it. As Eva shifted on the spot the dress glittered, ever so slightly._

" _Perfect," someone whispered, and she didn't know if it was her or Eva._

* * *

She wasn't panicking.

She was an adult. She was a member of government, with an incredibly important job that took her into contact with the most powerful people in the country. She'd sat with the President and talked with him like a normal human being. She was a respected member of her committees with a solid agenda set to bring a brighter future to the best state in the whole union.

She _was not_ sixteen again and back at her high-school prom, wondering if Steve or Rick or whatever the boy's name had been was going to stand her up and arrive with the head cheerleader instead. She was an _adult_ , goddamnit.

"Keep telling yourself that," she whispered to herself.

"Hmmm?"

"Nothing!" she almost squeaked out, turning like a surprised rodent. She needn't have worried, the old man who had asked her was barely interested in her response, engrossed on a conversation with three other men all of whom filled the basic template of old, rich and slightly overweight. You could find gatherings that looked identical in any club, bar or café you walked into in Washington. The only thing that changed was the hair colour, although generally it went from brown to white. This one had a little more variety, it wasn't often you saw dirty red as a colour in…

Oh no.

" _Summerford?"_

Automatically she looked at the man who had addressed her, and found herself trapped in a nightmare. Her jaw worked itself over for a couple of seconds before it could say its next words without spitting. "Leif, hello."

The rest of the group stopped talking and looked around to see what had distracted Leif Westergard from the very important business of paying attention to them. "Anna. This is unexpected," the man said.

Leif had lost weight since they last met, was the craziest thought that entered Anna's head as suddenly the spotlight was turned onto her. Growing up with him…enthroned…in the House, he had always been a big man, but now the flesh seemed to hang just a little more loosely on his frame, a little more jowly. His tuxedo still fit perfectly though, god forbid the man appear anywhere in public without looking impeccable. The rest of him was _exactly_ the same as she remembered. The haircut that belonged to a much younger man, the lines on the forehead and around his eyes that he always said came from laughing too much but Anna knew better. And the eyes. Those sunken eyes that he put on makeup for the cameras but couldn't quite hide in real life. He stared out at her from yellowed and greying pits. "A while," he said, a voice like gravel. Either he'd started smoking or he was already a couple of sheets to the wind.

She had always wondered how she'd react in this situation. She'd practically rushed out of the state after she'd beaten (thrashed, dominated, destroyed) him and they hadn't met since. Not that they had a reason to. He didn't particularly care for taking care of the state when he wasn't sat in the big chair, and she had no need for advice from a reptile.

"Since the election," she said, giving her best smile at the joy of meeting her honoured predecessor.

"Leif, are you going to introduce us to this pretty young thing?" one of the interchangeable donors asked, sounding even further out to sea than Leif was. Oh, free drinks, what trouble won't you cause? The man's smile quickly slid off his face at the look the old man shot him.

"This is Anna Summerford-"

"Congresswoman," Anna whispered. The effect was like hitting the man with a lash.

"My…successor," Leif said, only sounding a _little_ bit like he was gargling acid.

"A pleasure to meet you all," Anna said, turning her _best_ smile onto them.

"It certainly is! Always nice to see new blood in this town," one of them said, a friendly big bag of wine. "Especially some in so pretty a container. Nice to know it won't be just red-headed sons wandering around the-"

"Yes isn't it quite," Leif said, words running over the man like a steamroller, but not in time for Anna to hear them. She didn't need a translation for _that_ , and even in the heat of a hundred bodies in close proximity and the humid air that seeped in from the end of the summer climate, she felt a shiver run through her body.

Kai appeared at her shoulder as if teleporting in from mars, looking more than a little relieved. "Anna! There you are. If you- Mr Westergard." The relief on the rotund old man's face was wiped away instantly, the same way it had years ago when they had met on the campaign trail. "Always a pleasure."

"Kai," Leif muttered.

Pleasantries exchanged, Kai turned his back on Leif Westergard, ex-congressman. Anna knew he took great pleasure from it. "Anna, we're expected." He paused for a second, then; "Your seats are ready, and the President would like a word." She watched every word hammered into Leif's brain. She knew exactly what he was thinking. Just a few votes (really ten thousand or so, but she wouldn't begrudge him his fantasy that it had been anything other than a stomping) the other way and it would be him on that balcony, sitting with the other senators and the President and his guests, instead of being stuck in the (comparatively) cheap seats, with the mere rich and famous.

 _No, never. Elsa would never stand him,_ the thought came through loud and clear.

"Of course," Anna said. "Gentlemen, it's been a pleasure," she said, and she was pretty sure she meant it. She turned to her predecessor. "Leif." Without another word she took Kai's hand and strode away from the group. Only pure luck and a reflective glass pane in the lobby let her get a half-second glance behind her as she walked, to catch the shell-shocked group of men staring after her, the one that had spoken just a little too much already talking frantically with Leif, and the man himself staring silently at her retreating back, wearing the same expression she remembered from the last time they met, when they had been shaking hands after she had beaten him.

"Your father would be proud," Kai whispered.

* * *

_He's just a man._

"Mr President, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Likewise your majesty, it's an honour to finally have you here."

She was taller than he was. She hadn't expected that. Somehow from the endless events, videos and reports she had watched to try and get a sense of who exactly this man was, she had never realised that the President of the United States of America, the leader of the free world, was actually an inch or two shorter than she was. Bizarrely the thought made her want to giggle, but the dozen or so American reporters snapping pictures kept the expression on her face as a pleasant smile as they walked towards each and shook hands. The second their palms touched it was like the world around them turned white, capturing them both perfectly. An average-height, average-build man with a perfectly-coiffured haircut that reminded her of the old President this building was named after, and the queen in the blue-and-white gown and the tiara of white gold perched on top of a long blonde braid.

"Shall we?" the man asked, and gestured to the stairs behind them.

"Lead the way." She glanced behind herself as the President's bodyguard opened the door and began to lead them up, and…oh my lord. Kristoff stood at her back, face perfectly set in the featureless, emotionless expression that all bodyguards everywhere seemed to learn. But instead of his hands clasped in front of him where they should have been, both of them were giving her a small thumbs-up sign from his waist.

"Have you enjoyed American hospitality so far?" the President asked as they were led from the crowded and loud hallways where the common dignitaries were crushing and bumping to get into their seats, into the higher, quieter and altogether more _hallowed_ carpeted corridor of the upper balcony, tonight reserved for the President and his guests.

"I regret I haven't had much of a chance to experience it, we had a late plane."

"Well we'll certainly have to fix that at the real reception tomorrow," the man said, and Elsa found that she liked the man more than she had been prepared to. She had spent all her life around politicians and could spot phony pleasantries a mile away, like with that damned Weselton and his cabal. Whatever plans or schemes the President had – and she didn't fool herself that closer contacts was the only reason – he meant what he said.

"I'll be looking forward to it," Elsa said, just as sincerely.

The President turned away from her just slightly as they approached the door to the balcony. There wasn't a throng of people waiting there, nobody invited as his guest would be so rude. "Ah, and here are some of the people who'll help with that," he said, gesturing at them. As they walked by he gestured at them one by one, and she prepared herself for the brutal handshakes that were about to follow as he talked.

A strapping young blonde man only a little older than her who she recognised from several of her own balls, who had clearly been on his first assignment and who she had taken pity on as she watched him learn his own job at the same time as he tried to do it. He had been all earnest and awkward and a few years hadn't made much of a difference. "You already know Ambassador Smith of course."

"John, always a pleasure." She tried to smile reassuringly. She suspected that his job had gotten quite a bit harder recently.

"Your majesty," he managed to smile and nod before they moved past him. Clearly a mere ambassador wasn't going to rate very highly in this gathering. She hoped he at least enjoyed the opera.

Next: A huge whale of a man in an excellent suit, with small eyes and a goatee that didn't serve to cover up either of his chins. His eyes looked her up and down like they were hunting for something as he held out his hand. "Senator John Sicklemore of Virginia."

"A pleasure ma'am, an absolute _pleasure_ ," the man said, his voice all cheerful and welcoming. His eyes didn't change as he said it though. "I believe we have a mutual acquaintance."

She could guess who. Virginia. That was where Weselton hailed from. "I'm certain we do," she said as diplomatically as she could, and extricated herself from his grip. They moved on.

A tall man who didn't smile as he held out his hand. His grip was cold and dry. "Congressman Richard Stone of Texas."

"Your majesty," he said, and…nope, that was it apparently.

"A pleasure," she replied and nodded, and let go of his hand as quickly as possible. She generally liked the cold, but there was something…off…about this greying jagged slab of a man. His hands felt rough against her own.

They moved on to the second-to-last person in the queue, and Elsa's worries about not being able to meet someone turned out to have been moot all along as the President gestured at the red-headed woman before them.

"Congresswoman Anna Summerford, of Texas."

* * *

"We've met," Elsa said as she reached out to shake hands, and Anna felt the words flow over her like a warm breeze.

"Your majesty, it's so good to see you again," she replied. She looked so gorgeous it was almost physically hard to look at her. She was in blue and white, like she had been when they had first met, in something so sheer and amazingly cut it was unreal, with a long slit cut down the front with a silk… _something…_ underneath that reminded her of waterfalls, or glaciers. Her arms were covered by long blue gloves that could have matched her own, and as Anna's eyes quickly flitted from one feature to the next she noticed it; on the right wrist, a small white band that could have been platinum or gold it was so pure, and her heart leapt as she recognised the pale snowflake symbol engraved on it. _We weren't wrong._ She held her clutch in her free-hand tightly. "I've never been to the opera but I'm already looking forward to it." Oh, no. Someone's eyes were boring into her skull from the side, she could just _feel_ it.

Elsa smiled back at her. "I'm flattered. I hope we can talk again soon," she said, and as fast as it had come, it was gone. Elsa had moved on to the final VIP of their little private gathering, and Anna was left alone. She felt herself staring after Elsa and felt jealous as her attention was suddenly on someone else who wasn't her.

"So there's a truth in that rumour then?" a voice muttered in her ear, hot and heavy. She turned to see that somehow Stone and the senator had switched places in the line, and his hot muggy breath was in her ear.

"How do you mean, Mr Sicklemore?" she asked quietly, not taking her eyes away from the queen as Elsa laughed at something the President had said.

"We should talk later, you and I," the big man said, and thankfully leaned away.

An usher approached them. "Ladies and gentlemen?" he gestured to the double-doors that the President and the Queen had already entered through. "We'll begin shortly."

They went in after their head of state. The opera house was huge, classical, all red woods and shining polished brass, looking down on a stage kept pristine and polished by a society totally dedicated to keeping all the old stories and legends alive. At any other time Anna would have been enraptured just to be here, but tonight she barely looked down as the orchestra warmed up, but tonight she was distracted. All she could focus on was the woman a row down and two across, talking quietly with the President. She had been ready for a lot of things tonight. She had been prepared for them to not meet at all. Elsa was a queen after all, and Anna was a junior member of the least-important part of government. She had been prepared for Elsa to ignore her. Diplomatic functions like this weren't just play-rooms after all, and Elsa would be here for something the same way Anna was. She had been prepared for Elsa to be polite and nice with her and then move on to more important people like, oh, basically everyone else in this little party she had forced her way onto. She had even been prepared for her own reactions. She'd been prepared for the spark she felt to be disappointed as they met in person again and find out Elsa was just one more politician saying pretty words. She had been prepared to feel nothing now that she had Alice and Tiana and wasn't so desperate for friendship.

She hadn't been prepared for _this._ She hadn't been prepared to feel totally breathless just looking into those amazingly blue eyes, or having to concentrate really, _really_ hard to keep her hand from shaking as she felt her own burning-hot palms touch Elsa's cool skin. She hadn't been prepared for her tongue to almost freeze up in her mouth when she tried to speak.

The lights lowered and she was relieved, if only because she was now free to blush and nobody could see her doing so. The actors took the stage and she stood and clapped as the opera began, a huge booming voice announcing the betrothal of someone or other to some princess or queen – at least according to the playbill she was holding – but she couldn't focus on the music that was washing over them. She could catch a glimpse of the side of Elsa's face as she and the President talked softly, the long blonde braid cascading past her neck and shoulder-blades and down the back of that amazing dress.

God, it was going to be a long night.

* * *

Good lord, it was going to be a long night.

The low lights as the opera rolled on below her were a godsend, letting her sit in relative darkness. Letting her hide away from everyone else in the balcony, as she rolled around inside her own head. She pictured the moment over and over again like a movie clip stuck on repeat.

From the second she had realised Anna was in the line to greet her she had felt her spirits lift up, but she hadn't prepared herself for actually being in front of her. She had seen the dress and known – just _known_ – that Anna was wearing it because of the Weselton party. She had looked astounding. The dress was dark green with a ruffled skirt, the chest area even darker, almost looking like a corset, with vines of leaves or _something_ engraved across it. It was off the shoulder and Elsa had seen the freckles that travelled down from her face to her arms and chest, only stopping where a thin strip of fabric ran along the top, just like the one at Weselton. Her hair was gathered up on her head in a bun, only a few stray strands escaping it. She'd had to focus hard not to stare. Then Anna had shook her hand and she had seen the gloves, the _gloves_. They were like hers, only a dark green and embroidered with flowers. Bluebonnets. Anna's state flower. She had remembered. When they had shook hands Elsa had felt the heat radiating from them. She had felt it through two pairs of gloves. Even now minutes later her hands still felt warm underneath her gloves. If she was alone she would have taken them off.

She was hyper-aware that Anna sat only a few yards away from her, a row back and a couple across. _If I turn around now will she be looking at me?_ she suddenly thought, and only the presence of the President of the United States by her side stopped her from craning her neck back to check.

"Enjoying the opera so far?" the man asked quietly as the stages were swapped out below them with practised precision.

"Absolutely," she whispered back, lying. She had no idea what was going on. She had a playbill in her hands but she had barely read it. Her father had always tried to 'help' her enjoy the opera whenever she was dragged along but it didn't work. She didn't like having to look _away_ from something to enjoy it. Why couldn't it have been a regular play?

But even if the event had been a recitation of biblical genealogy for three hours she'd still have come, to meet Anna again.

* * *

The opera played out below her but Anna could barely see the stage. It was like she was wearing bad glasses and their focus ended at the edge of the balcony. She could see everyone and everything around her but everything beyond the first row was a blurry mess. She didn't mind though, because nothing else beyond it really mattered to her in that moment. She wanted the opera to be over. She wanted an intermission. More than anything she wanted an excuse to talk to Queen Elsa again. The little box inside her clutch seemed to weigh a hundred tons as it sat on her lap.

"Distracted?"

She heard the voice but didn't turn. "Hmm?" she asked gently, trying to give the impression that she was totally engrossed by the opera.

"Don't blame you Anna. Can I call you Anna? She's very distracting."

"What do you mean senator?" she asked as Sicklemore leaned closer to her. Just her damned luck, trapped next to someone she couldn't run and who, technically outranked her. Not that a Virginian senator had any _actual_ power over a Texas congresswoman of course, but the title 'senator' came with a whole lot more baggage, prestige and power than 'congressman' did. They weren't constantly running for election, they could afford to take their time, they could debate endlessly. Congressmen who pissed off a senator could see their bills held up, committees re-assigned, and their job made a hell of a lot harder if they drew the ire of the wrong man. Since her election Anna had tread lightly around them.

"There's a lot of…interest…focussed on the queen at the moment," the man said, rolling his words like an MC at a cabaret club. "A lot of interest from a lot of very powerful people. Not that you need to be told that Anna."

"I sure don't," Anna said, and wondered where the hell the greasy old whale was going with this.

"You have an advantage over me Anna. Over all of us really. We'd like to help the queen you see but we don't have enough _information._ Myself and some friends would be much obliged if you'd help with that. With the little connection you seem to have."

There it was. She turned away from the opera and gave him a big smile. "I'm flattered senator but I really don't know all that much about her," she said, totally honest and completely lying at the same time. "I've only really met her once." She had a flash of inspiration. "I don't think I'll even be seeing her again tonight," she said, as innocent as a new-born lamb.

And the good senator from Virginia fell for it hook, line and sinker. "Well Anna, I do think I can assist you with that."

* * *

The message came down to her like Chinese whispers. Unlike the childhood game though this one came through loud and clear. Agent Kristoff Bjorgman watched as it started; from the raised fingers of the fat old man from one of the American states, to his guard, across from the guard to the American Secret Serviceman standing by. From _that_ man it finally crossed national borders as it went to Marshall, and Marshall left his post to come down to Kristoff. "A message for the queen," his boss whispered to him, and repeated it.

Kristoff heard it, and forgot himself for just a moment. "What?" He balked at the black look Marshall gave him. "Sorry sir, at once." The giant white-haired man turned to go back to his post, and Kristoff stalked quietly down the stairs and through the row, to whisper into his queen's ear.

In the darkness of the great opera hall she looked at him like he was crazy. "What?"

"A message from the senator from Virginia. They were wondering if they might meet with you for just a few minutes after the opera is over. They'd like to return something you misplaced on your last visit," he repeated.

From the look on her face Kristoff knew no such thing existed. The last time they had been here was the Weselton party, and he and Marshall had made _damn_ sure they left with everything they had brought. The queen sat there for a couple more seconds, staring out at the opera then; "Thank him and tell him I'd be delighted to accept."

He walked away, and the message made itself back through the human message-chain to the man sitting back there.

"What's that about?" a deep voice asked from behind him.

"No idea sir," Kristoff replied to his boss. "But she wants to do it, so…"

"Kristoff, one day you'll realise it's our job to protect them from themselves as well as others," Marshall intoned, and walked back to his post.

As a matter of course they had read the reports on anyone sitting near the queen, the same way the American Secret Service had certainly read the reports on _them._ John Sicklemore, a member of the senate from Virginia. Not his real name, but he hated people using his old one, and had the contacts to make sure that anybody who did got the message loud and clear not to do it again. One of those contacts was Duke Weselton, a name everyone at the castle knew by heart at this point. Whether they were just friends or one of them was in the pocket of the other Kristoff didn't know and didn't care. He was a simple man. He just wanted to keep El- the queen safe. All of this politics to him was just boring garbage that got in the way. What the hell the man _actually_ wanted to talk with the queen about was anybody's guess, but he didn't care and just thinking about it made Kristoff nervous.

It looked like somebody else was nervous too. Anna – congresswoman Summerford – was easy to pick out, the single woman on the balcony, also easily the best-dressed. Anybody else might not have noticed it in the dark but Kristoff had excellent night-eyes, and Anna hadn't been able to sit still ever since the opera started. She kept looking away from the stage, rubbing her shoulders with her hands like she was cold, even though the night was warm and the opera house was almost toasty. Maybe she just didn't like the opera much. God knows Kristoff could sympathise, and so could Els- _the queen_ , judging from how often he caught her from the corner of his eye, struggling to pay attention herself. Maybe she'd accepted the invitation just to have something to wake her up after the opera.

…Which was now almost over. He thought. There had been several deaths and even more droning eulogies that went on for several minutes each that for all he knew could be talking about how happy they were that _x_ character was dead. There were dead roses and some kind of fight where they had stood around with swords in their hands and sung. Kristoff _really_ didn't like the opera. When it finally ended everyone stood up, took their bows, and waited there as everyone in the opera house stood and clapped, including Elsa and the President. For once he was thankful is job meant he had to keep his hands free.

* * *

She wasn't looking forward to it.

She didn't know exactly what she had hoped for at the end of this night ( _liar_ ) but meeting with a senator – how was that different from a congressman again? – from the same state as her increasingly-antagonistic mountain-squatter definitely wasn't it.

"Did you enjoy the play?" the President asked as they stood and Elsa smoothed down her dress. It was a miracle the thing was intact after how much squirming it felt like she had been doing.

"What little I understood I enjoyed," she said self-deprecatingly, actually the truth. She had understood barely any of it, and no matter how hard she had tried to put it out of her mind she had been aware of Anna sitting no further than a few second's walk behind her, a small prickle on the back of her neck that had kept her off-balance and distracted from the incomprehensible play. She was sure her father would have loved it and spent the day talking about it, but she just couldn't get her head around it. Well, at least she'd fulfilled the promise that her father had made to King Sven that someone from their family would go. She'd send him a letter.

The secret serviceman from both their countries were waiting for her as she stepped out of the balcony, although Marshall towered over the not-exactly-small American bodyguard. She turned to the President. "If I may?" The man nodded, and she stepped through the offered door.

Now, _this_ she liked more. It looked like some kind of informal meeting room for visiting actors, or dignitaries, or something. It looked about as big as a regular living-room like she'd had back at university, but much better-appointed. Instead of the smooth but harsh whites that the lobbies and foyers were covered in, or the dark red woods and brass of the opera house itself, the small(ish) room was much more welcoming. There were two expensive-looking green couches in the centre of the room around a small knee-high glass table, with a bar on one side and some televisions on the other that showed the stage that the actors were currently cleaning and vacating.

"Excuse me," the American secret serviceman said, and then suddenly it was just her and Marshall, alone in the room as the door clicked shut behind her.

She looked up at her head of security. "What on earth?" she asked. It turned out she didn't have to wait for an answer, because the second she asked, the door swung open again. She sighed. "Senator I'm happy to talk with you but if this is about your countryman then I'm going to have to…"

"It isn't," Anna said.

* * *

_This is it. Don't screw up._

She forced the words out through a body that didn't quite seem to be understanding the instructions her brain was sending it. She didn't dare try and move her hands in case they didn't get it and crushed her clutch.

"Hi. Hello. Your majesty."

Her vision cleared up and she almost locked up completely when she saw Elsa looking back at her, eyes wide in shock, eyes almost sparkling in the soft light of the room. She imagined they glittered. Her mouth was parted ever so slightly, like hers was. For a second Anna and Elsa stared at each other, mirrors in blue and green, until finally Anna regained the use of her body and shut her mouth before she caught flies in it.

"Hello Anna," Elsa said softly. Her name sounded beautiful.

She had no idea what to say. Sicklemore had whispered words and phrases in her ear but she had never had any intention of using them, she just wanted his job title and his ability to get her in the same room as the queen. If she'd had more warning she could have thought of something. If she'd thought through the opera instead of just fidgeting and staring at the back of Elsa's head she might not be stood here silently like a puppet with half its strings cut.

"How was the opera?" Anna asked, finally, just to break the lengthening silence in the room.

* * *

"It was…it was alright," she replied.

She was dead on her feet. She had died of shock. It had been bad enough when the presence of the President, her own guards and the other American VIPs had been there to keep her grounded in reality. But Anna was _here_ , right in front of her, and there was nobody else in the room apart from Marshall and the American secret serviceman. "I'm not…really a huge fan of the opera," she replied, feeling like an idiot. It wasn't a feeling she liked but right now standing here somehow she didn't care.

"Me neither," Anna said, and laughed nervously, and Elsa watched and noticed how the corners of her mouth turned up, the left side a little bit more, and her shoulders shook and made the freckles look like they were bouncing up and down.

"So…" she asked.

"So I…" Anna replied, just as nervously, holding the small clutch before her like a talisman. Anna took a few steps forward and Elsa had to fight the urge to step back and she didn't know why. "I really enjoyed the time as talked together on the phone."

"I did too." Really enjoyed. More like a light in a dim room.

Anna went on. "And I know right now you're going through some rough times." _You incredibly sweet girl._ "I just…" she clicked her clutch open and reached inside, and Elsa watched as she drew out a thin piece of folded silk. "I just wanted you to know that you do have friends. And I don't just mean our countries like the President does." She held it out to her, and Elsa took it. She could feel the faint warmth of Anna's hands still on it. She heard a muffled _click_ as she took it in her hands, and unfolded it as gently as she could.

"I just wanted to let you know," Anna said, and Elsa looked in her eyes and saw infinite compassion and understanding. She had to physically move her head downwards to break eye contact.

She felt the breath stop in her throat as she looked at the thing that had been wrapped inside the silk. It was incredible. It was gorgeous. It twinkled as it sat in the palm of her hands on the bed of white silk it had been wrapped in. It was a short chain, a necklace designed to hang just below the throat, the links made out or something that could have been platinum or burnished white gold that shone gently without being overwhelming or blinding. Clipped it to so that it would cover up the catch was a beautifully-wrought six-pointed snowflake. Not just any snowflake, _her_ snowflake.

* * *

"I hope you like it." _I want you to like it._ She said and really meant as Elsa stared down at the small pendant. Her hands rubbed together, creasing the velvet gloves, but she didn't notice or care.

In the end she'd gone to the brothers like Tiana had suggested. A small shop down at least five different and increasingly-smaller streets away from the main boutiques where the big chains were. It had been a simple storefront, only a few small watches and chains on display, and at first she had wondered if Tiana was funning a little with her. But she had trusted her friend and walked in, and after ten minutes with some of the diminutive jewellers that ran the family shop the doubt had been gone. They had made it exacting, perfect, and almost overnight, and when she had held the small necklace-slash-choker in her hands she had known, _known_ that it was perfect.

"It's…beautiful," Elsa said in almost a whisper, eyes staring down unblinking at the small gift, held in her hands like it was precious. "I love it."

Anna watched enraptured as ever so carefully, like she was holding the thinnest china, Elsa's hands came up holding the necklace. She shifted her head back and Anna had an unobstructed view of her throat as Elsa clasped the small snowflake pendant around it. When she put it down again Anna could see the six-pointed star twinkling there at her collarbone, resting on the small amount of skin before the dress began.

"I'll treasure it," the Queen of Arendelle said, and smiled in a way that ran through Anna's eyes and down her chest and into her heart, where it rested. It matched her perfectly. It looked like it belonged.

"Your majesty," the giant guard said. And just like that the spell that had been cast over the room was broken.

Anna felt a small amount of panic grip her soul. "Wait," she said, barely managing to keep it from being a desperate shout.

Elsa looked back. "Yes?"

* * *

"Come to Texas," Anna said. "I have…I did promise to show you some real American hospitality. It's not all opera and plays. You'd…I think you'd really like it."

"I…"

"There are people who'd really like to meet you," Anna said before Elsa could start talking, and Elsa remembered that she hadn't expected Anna here because she _had_ been waiting for a certain senator from Virginia.

"More friends?" Elsa asked.

Even now she couldn't lie. "Friendly, maybe," Anna replied, telling Elsa exactly what these 'people' were without anything as crude as an insult. It was something Eva would have said.

"I can live with that," Elsa said, and as quickly as it had come the roadblock was gone.

"How long are you here for?" Anna asked. "In the US?"

 _Today and tomorrow_ was the real answer but right now, in this moment, with the snowflake pendant wrapped around her throat Elsa would bend reality itself. "A week. Maybe a little longer." She could stretch it out that long, she told herself. "I assume we'll…meet again before I go?"

"Yes." She'd cash in any favour she had. She'd clean offices if she had to. "Then come for a day or two on your way home," Anna said. "We have airports. We…geez. I mean we have an international airport. There are some people who'd like to meet you. Then we can show you around the south." Her green eyes were almost vibrating in their sockets.

Elsa knew that the invitation came with strings attached, but she didn't care so much. She'd have sit at dinner with the devil if she had to. "I'd love to. I will."

"Your majesty."

"Congresswoman."

They turned as both of their security spoke at once.

"I should go," Anna said.

"I should…me too." Elsa turned to leave, but...she turned back before Marshall could lead her out. "Anna."

Anna spun around like a top, the dress whirling beautifully with her. Elsa wondered if she danced. "Yes!"

Her hand brushed against the pendant again. "Thank you, again."

The smile she got in return could have lit the heavens.

* * *

Nothing could touch her. Not the cold that had crept in as the night went on to replace the evening heat. Not the weather which had changed to a light drizzle, she could happily have danced in the crowd that pushed and shoved around her as they tried to dodge between raindrops on the way to their cares. Not the paparazzi flashing away at anyone they recognized, shouting questions just to have something to do. Not her chief of staff, who was standing with a scowl on his face, tapping his watch as he saw her looking his way as he leaned against the car.

Not even the senator, who stood between her and it.

"Anna," John Sicklemore of Virginia smiled down at her.

"Senator!" Anna said, and almost laughed at the shock on his face at her cheerfulness.

"How was your…talk?" John Sicklemore asked, kept out of the rain by a huge black umbrella held by an aide. In the gloom of the night, with the Kennedy Centre lights dimming and the stars now hidden behind clouds, he looked like a huge slab of midnight outlined against the gloom.

 _It was perfect._ "It went perfectly," Anna said happily.

"So…"

She smiled up at him. "Texas is lovely in the autumn senator," she replied. "You should visit it soon. Next week maybe. We'd be happy to host you."

His eyes twinkled, and if Anna hadn't been lost in a haze of joy she wouldn't have liked them at all. "It'd be a pleasure to go. I hear there's been some great improvements in the last couple of years."

"Not yet senator, but I great plans."

"Well, we'll see what we can do to help those along. Good evening Anna," John Sicklemore said, and the deal was set and the debt acknowledged. With that done, he folded away into the night like a ghost.

"Good night," she whispered at the departing senator, the Kennedy Centre, and the world at large.

* * *

Kai stared at her without speaking as the limo door closed and started the slow drive back to the brownstone where she lived. The partition between the two of them and the Secret Serviceman driver and escort was closed, and Kai leaned forward. "Anna?"

"Hmm?"

"Did everything go well?"

"I made some new friends," Anna said. "Just like we planned."

"Good," Kai replied, worried for some small reason he couldn't quite put his finger on. Anna seemed happy, and he had seen her talking with John Sicklemore. Powerful, and a snake like Leif, but a very powerful one and not nearly so…unpredictable. He'd talk more with Anna about him later, right now she looked like anything he said would go in one ear and out the other. He watched as his boss stared out of the window, a smile plastered on her face, and wondered. Well, let her be happy. Tomorrow they could wonder about what exactly it was that the senator wanted, or whether there would be any…blowback…from Leif Westergard's presence at the opera. What on _earth_ was he doing there? Leif had been powerful in Texas but with his relentless grabbing for power and willingness to throw people in his way under the bus he had never made very many friends in the capitol. Who had invited him, and why? Questions for another day.

Let her be happy for now.

* * *

"It looks lovely," Eva said, as Elsa stared at it in the mirror, her press secretary hovering over her shoulder.

"Yes, it does doesn't it," she replied, lost in her own reflection.

They were back in the ambassador's house, where Elsa _should_ have been changing out of her dress and focussing on getting a good night's sleep for the reception tomorrow. Instead here she was a half-hour later, looking at the small necklace that shone softly at her neck.

"And it will look lovely tomorrow," Gerda said, fully aware of what her queen should have been doing. "When you wear it to the reception at the White House. In the meantime your majesty will you _please_ get some _sleep?_ "

 _Yes!_ She hadn't exactly been looking forward to it. At least in the opera-house it had been just the President who'd been talking with her. At the reception she was going to be free game for anybody who had the money or the position to get in. Only a small reception, a hundred or so people. But if she had the chance to wear this again she'd bear it. For the chance of talking with Anna again she'd bear it. A small snatched conversation when their ships were passing wasn't enough. She wanted to really talk where time and politics weren't working against them both. She wanted to know more about her. "Of course," she said to her steadily-unravelling chief of staff.

The door clicked shut behind them as Gerda and Eva left the room.

"It seemed to go well," the younger woman said.

"I'm not sure about that necklace though, it hasn't been cleared. There might be something about accepting gifts from non-heads-of-state we might have to check." As the two of them entered the large drawing room that contained the rest of the delegation Gerda clapped her hands for their attention. "Excellent work tonight everyone. Get a good night's sleep, because tomorrow will be worse."

"How did it go?" Steffen Erikson asked, newly promoted for the visit. Gerda remembered he had done extremely well on short notice at the Weselton debacle, and he seemed to get along with Queen Elsa just fine, which at times could be more important than the rest of the job.

"It went great, now didn't you all hear me? Sleep!" Gerda commanded, like a mother shouting at disobedient sons. She was already thinking ahead to tomorrow. Infinitely more people to talk to, infinitely more things to go wrong. "At least she's in a good mood," she whispered to Eva, her dislike of the younger and – she thought – sometimes inappropriately glamourous younger woman tempered by their shared experience to come.

Eva just smiled, and thought of the look in Elsa's eyes when she looked at that necklace, and kept her thoughts to herself.


	6. Chapter 6

"Anna, are you sure you're not in just a _little_ over your head here?" Tiana asked.

And because she was being strictly honest that morning she answered: "Pretty sure."

The dark-skinned woman raised an eyebrow that conveyed somehow an immense amount of disbelief. "Really girl? Because it _sounds_ like what you're doing is jumping into a pool of alligators and hoping they're too busy snapping at each other to notice you there."

"It isn't _that_ bad," she replied as she dressed. _The_ dress, tonight. The dress she had worn at the Weselton party, because even if she had loved it and _Elsa_ had loved it there was no way she was going to wear the same dress twice in a night. Not in _this_ town, not with the amount of paparazzi that had been at the opera last night. It would probably get a few column inches, if not an outright hanging offence. She shrugged it onto her shoulders and ran a hand along the thin green strip at the top, the one with the crocuses embroidered onto the dark green fabric. If the worst they would say about her was that she liked green so be it.

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Hmm?"

"Oh for…" Tiana strode forward and gripped Anna at the shoulders. "You could get yourself in real trouble here, Anna," the old woman said insistently.

She had told Tiana everything of course, because there was no way she _couldn't_. Her landlord-slash-friend had still been awake when the limo had deposited her at the brownstone they lived in and Anna had been far too jinked on coffee and exhilaration to sleep. So the two had sat in the living room on the bottom floor, a nice and cosy little place Tiana always made sure was warm and welcoming and filled with small plates of delicious _things_ for guests. A little _so how was your evening_ was all it had taken and Anna had gushed out every detail. Other girls had come down as the night had went on, almost all of whom were younger than her and all of whom were enraptured by the oh-so-important congresswoman in the glamourous green dress. It was like having a real-life princess sat in their living room. One who walked with queens and presidents.

Tiana had listened and watched as Anna had talked for over an hour about her night, and unlike the rest of 'her' girls – because she never took a tenant just for money, and she never treated them like that – she had listened just a little more closely as Anna had went on, and she had watched Anna's hands and eyes as she did so. She had noticed when the narrative seemed to halt and skip around something, and when Anna twitched and shifted in her seat in a way that didn't look like hyperactive nerves. When her red-haired friend had finally ran out of words Tiana had ordered the rest of the girls to bed – it _was_ after midnight, and most of them didn't have jobs that could afford them the luxury of sleeping in – she had sat there with Anna and asked just a couple more questions. The answers had made her worried. About fat old men from Virginia and black-eyed old men from Texas. If there had been a skeleton-thin man from Louisiana she would have collected the whole set of People to Avoid.

"You can't serve two masters Anna, trust me on that. It sounds like you're trying to serve a _trio_ , and two of them could stomp you into the mud whenever they wanted," Tiana warned the younger woman.

"I'll be fine," Anna said, attaching her earrings as from outside a car horn _beep_ ed at the house incessantly. "Sorry, sorry, that's for me!" she squeaked, practically body-blocking Tiana out of the way as she rushed out of the door. Tiana walked over to the window and watched as Kai opened the door of the long black limo that had just pulled up and was already drawing a couple of glances from passers-by. Just looking she could see the enthusiasm that was affecting little Anna Summerford clearly hadn't penetrated Kai's eternal mood of vigilance and protectiveness. God bless him, at least if Anna was too star-struck to see the path ahead of her, the old man would try to keep her walking on it.

"Good luck kid," Tiana whispered as the car pulled out of the street, and headed downtown towards the centre of the city. "You're going to need it."

* * *

Anna really _was_ trying to keep her head on straight, but it was becoming increasingly difficult. It felt like a blessed week. First the opera, which had gone beyond spectacularly well. Now, as her eyes scanned the itinerary that Kai had just handed her, she saw not a single thing to challenge that feeling.

Kai wasn't feeling the same way, what with being the _other_ person that Anna had delivered a full and prompt report to on the limo home from the Kennedy Centre. While he didn't _disapprove_ exactly, he'd made it clear he wasn't entirely happy either. "It's dangerous to curry favours with people like that Anna," he said as his boss flipped through the pages. "Especially when you don't know exactly what they want."

She looked up. "I'm pretty sure I know what they want."

"Oh?" Kai leaned back. Teacher mode.

"The President wants some kind of debt between us and Arendelle," Anna said, smiling as she saw him doing it and rising to the challenge. "Maybe he wants trade or maybe he wants to make sure they doesn't sell any of the more…dangerous stuff…to people we don't like." _Not that Elsa would ever._ "He wants to make nice and make sure that if they ask for any help it's us they turn to first."

Kai mock-clapped like she was a favoured student giving a correct answer.

"Sicklemore…the senator was harder," Anna said. "But I figured it out in the end. He's from Virginia and so is somebody else we've met. Duke Weselton from the party. He – well, his company, subsidiary, whatever – had the contract to dig up that giant mountain. I guess Sicklemore wants to make sure he keeps it. Typical lobbying."

"Typical lobbying," Kai agreed with a smile. _You've raised a fine young daughter,_ Kai thought to himself, holding up an imaginary glass to his retired old friend back in Texas. "Just be careful Anna. Just because you know where they're shooting doesn't mean you're-"

"-Fast enough to dodge. Yes, yes I know," Anna said. An old saying of daddy's. She looked from the window of the limo as it slowed, and noticed that the hustle of Washington's main streets had been replaced. The traffic had shrunk to almost nothing, and the tourists that peppered every street were nowhere to be seen. "Look," she said, as they approached the wrought iron of their destination.

Kai twisted around to see, then looked back at Anna. "It still has that effect, doesn't it?"

"It does," Anna said quietly, as they drew up to the gates.

As a small child Anna had never had the chance to visit Disneyland. She had grown up on the films like everyone else she had ever known, but somehow the stars had never aligned in that particular configuration. When she was a girl she had friends, and sometimes they would go away for the summer to Florida or Europe, and come back a month later clutching a mouse-eared hat in one hand and a half-deflated balloon in the other, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a half-dozen princesses. She would see the stars still in their eyes and be consumed with jealousy for…oh…entire _minutes_. Her parents had promised her that they would go when the time was right, but they would never lie to her just to make her happy, and Anna had always known they were very busy and important. She knew that even though her father loved her very much, he had promised a _whole lot_ of people that he would try and make their lives better, and that was very important to him and a very good thing to do. So when they had simply never found the time she had accepted it, and it wasn't like her life was lacking in any other way. They had a big house and Anna had actual real-life horses she could ride whenever she was at home, so eventually the thought had faded from sadness to simple acceptance, then she had put it out of her mind entirely. Still though, her friends had gone somewhere unearthly and magical that Anna hadn't gotten to see.

The White House was magic for her now.

* * *

She'd have been lying if there wasn't a little voice in the back of her head, jumping up and down and wondering if, in her haste, she hadn't gone just a little too far last night at the opera. Walked a little further out on the tree limb than she had planned to, just to try and get at that pretty little flower perched on the end of the very long, very high branch. But then, you could pretty much describe all of politics that way.

How much are you willing to expose yourself, to get what you want? Some stood up and rushed at the flower as fast as they could, the branch breaking under the speed and weight and sending them toppling to the ground in embarrassment or disgrace. Others stayed close to the trunk all their lives, too scared to make even a little progress, and while they could argue they were just waiting for the right moment, most of them were forced back down to earth when people realised they had no intention of even trying. Most though found a spot a little ways out. Not in grasping reach of the flower, but close enough that they could look at it whenever they wanted, and where the branch was still thick enough that they felt safe. Not victory, but survival, and in Washington survival was a victory all of its own.

Anna felt like by promising Senator Sicklemore his meeting, by giving him a quite large concession just for a single meeting with Elsa, she had maybe shimmied along it a little further than she had realised. Still though, she wasn't going to complain. Not when it meant she got to spend the morning… _here._ When she was backpacking across the country she'd come and spent a half-day on a tour, and when she was sworn in and a couple of other times she was backup for Stone she'd taken the very short walk from the side-gate to the Oval Office to make her oath, but until today that was it. She wanted to wander off and explore the place, see and touch and breathe in the air of all the places she'd read about in the books. The Blue Room, the Treaty Room, the Lincoln Bedroom…

_Focus._

Well, she'd settle for the East Room. Not that she could really _see_ much of the huge ballroom, what with the reception going on inside it and all. The mid-morning light streamed in through the huge glass windows, illuminating the throng inside. It had already been that special kind of packed when she had arrived, with every important person hyper-aware that everyone around them was _also_ a very important person and they couldn't just jostle their elbows for space, in case the person they shoved out of the way was a general or something. The White House Press Corps wandered the corridors between the rooms, trying to scrape what free food they could while avoiding the attentions of the honour guard that manned the halls. The entire place had turned into a sort of human whirlpool. The President and his entourage were occupying most of the attention at the centre, holding court. Around _him_ the senators and foreign dignitaries from a couple of dozen countries circled, idly chatting with that special kind of empty small-talk you learned as a diplomat. Reporters and the cameramen jumped out of the flow occasionally to get quotes and pictures as the band played something classical in the corner, safe from the general chaos of the reception. Anna had decided trying to push through into the centre of the whirlpool, towards where the Man and his guests were, was pointless. She'd taken to wandering the corridors outside the East Room where the White House staff got on with running the country while their boss tried to charm the world, occasionally peering into rooms that looked interesting. Smooth classical music drifted through the air around them as she nodded and smiled at everyone who noticed her. She was having a great time.

"Congresswoman Summerford!"

She turned as her voice was practically shouted down the corridor she was currently walking down. "Yes?" she asked the tall, dark-haired and… _fabulously_ -dressed woman who was striding towards her, wearing an off-the-shoulder long black dress that could have been just a sheet of cloth wrapped around her but wouldn't have mattered because wrapped around those tall curves it looked incredible.

A manicured hand was held out and Anna shook it on instinct. Her palm was warm to the touch. "Oh good, I was going off a description and you never can be sure. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"I'm sorry but I don't recall…" Anna was forced to admit.

"I don't blame you, we only ever spoke on the phone once. Evangeline Voll."

Of course! That was why the voice but not the face had seemed so familiar. Anna shook the hand a little more enthusiastically before letting go. "You're with the queen."

"Her Press Secretary," Eva said, and my but Anna could see how she could get the job, with a voice like that.

"Is everything alright?" Anna asked, craning her neck around the window to try and see through the throng occupying the East Room. Occasionally she caught a flash of white or blue but she had no idea whether it was the queen or just someone else in a similar colour.

"Everything's fine," Eva said softly. "It's been a wonderful reception, we couldn't ask your people to do more. We were just wondering about the schedule for today…"

* * *

She had spotted her a couple of times, a green wraith that moved in and out of the corner of her eye, just quickly enough that when Elsa turned to look she was already gone. That was all she had allowed herself though, just knowing she was there was enough. This wasn't a darkened opera-house where she could let her attention meander around in relative safety. Here, the spotlight was very much on all of them. She had seen Eva walking out of the room, now all that was left to do was hope that her press secretary managed to get the message-stroke-offer to her before the party ended. She had to remind herself that Anna was an official here too, and unlike her had to rely on doing her job to keep getting elected. Well, at least she was visible. The same blue dress that she had worn to the Weselton party, with one extra addition. What happened next would happen.

"So how has the trip been so far your majesty?" the President asked, not knowing he was asking the same question that someone else had.

And like that last time she answered honestly: "It's a pleasure to be here Mr President." After her first at the Weselton party she had been dreading this visit, even with the chance of meeting Anna again. But now after the opera she felt great. She had looked out of the windows of the official car on the way to the White House and absorbed it all like a sponge, making a list of things that looked interesting. Then she had passed that list to Eva, along with some instructions. "I'm looking forward to seeing more of your country today."

"Glad to hear it, glad to hear it. If a guide is required, we'd be more than happy to provide one."

"Actually now that you mention it…" Elsa began, but before she could continue someone else took the reins of the idea and ran off with it.

"What a fantastic coincidence, we have someone here with us who'd be more than perfect for just this kind of thing."

Elsa turned to see the old senator she had met at the Opera smiling at her. "Excuse me?"

Senator Sicklemore of Virginia turned away and whispered something to one of the endless aides that seemed to slip in and out of their little circle, almost interchangeable and totally silent. "We have someone here who'd be more than happy to assist in something like this. Brought him here as a favour to a friend. Knows the place like the back of his hand. Why, better than me probably, and I'm quite the historian!"

"If you can spare him John…" the President said, swirling the brandy in his glass around. It seemed to Elsa like everyone at the party over a certain age was holding one of the things like a fashion trend. Maybe it helped them get through the day.

"No trouble at all Mister President, anything of mine is at your disposal, especially when it comes to helping bring two countries so _similar_ closer together." He smiled, and in that smile Elsa saw the insincerity that had been missing from the President's.

"Certainly," Elsa said, cursing, hoping Eva hurried up delivering her message. "Closer relations are exactly why I'm here," she said, this time lying just a little bit. "I'd be glad for the escort, and the tour guide."

"Maybe after you've seen a little of the place we can talk more," the President said with a smile. "About more important matters than opera."

_Ah, it begins._

She had known it was coming of course. Had expected it from day one. That it had taken this long and he hadn't started on her at the opera showed either extreme restraint or uncommon courtesy. Either way she had been grateful that the President had given her and Anna a chance to meet without discussing the _real_ reason that this little diplomatic visit had been arranged, and was being given such a high priority for a country that – as much she Elsa loved her home she had to admit – was definitely not topping any 'most important places' lists.

From the minute that she had read that little sheet of paper Gerda had handed her she had known what kind of trouble she was going to be in for. The money, the gold and other precious metal veins, were bad enough – as Weselton and his barely-legal squatting were proving – and her economic advisors had already helped her draw up plans for keeping the bulk of it safe inside the country and 100% absolutely property of Arendelle. The rest had promised to be worse though and just looking at those small scientific notations had made her palms crawl so badly she had wanted to take her gloves off and _scratch_. Ores she had barely heard of but coveted voraciously by some tech company or another. Rare earth elements that went into every phone and TV on the planet.

And then the big one. Uranium. A giant white elephant that was hanging around her neck. Or a bullseye.

She wanted Weselton off her mountain – she wanted _everyone_ off her mountain – and she was here to try and bend the President of the United States' ear to do it. The problem was going to be getting him to agree to it without giving up the mountain in exchange.

"And here's the man in question!" The large senator exclaimed, as a red-haired young man approached them.

"Senator. Always a pleasure." He looked like the kind of man Elsa had seen on billboards dotted through the city. He was tall, and handsome, and had a perfect smile and jaw that could have been chiselled from marble. The only difference was the hair, which was a shock of red, with sideburns that he barely pulled off.

"We've just been talking my boy. How would you feel about a little sight-seeing?"

The man nodded and gave a dazzling smile. "It'd be a pleasure Senator, and an honour your maj-"

"Your majesty."

The new arrival was cut off mid-sentence and overruled as Eva pulled the same trick and appeared over her shoulder. Her press secretary tipped her head apologetically at the others and bent down a little to whisper in her ear, but Elsa already knew the plan had been successful when – with much less grace and ease she had to admit – Anna pushed her way through the mass to stand next to her. Elsa smiled, and turned to her would-be tour guide.

"I'm sorry senator, mister President, but I already – quite coincidentally – have an escort previously arranged."

All of them hid their reactions quite well, with the exception of the Senator whose eye ticked like someone had just pricked him with a pin. It smoothed over fast enough though, and was replaced with a smile. He opened his mouth to say something, but was beaten to it by the young man.

"That's a shame your majesty, but a promise is a promise," he said.

"I'm sorry to have wasted your time mister…" Elsa began politely, eager to turn away and start talking to someone else.

"Westergard. Hans Westergard."

* * *

He was a Westergard, she'd bet all the money in her pock- wait, her dress didn't have pockets in it. She'd bet all of the money she had back in her apartment. It was the same hair, and the same eyes – although _this_ pair didn't look like they'd spent three decades immersed in the crap of politics and backstabbing. Leif had a baker's dozen of sons, and last she had checked every single one of them had been as carelessly power-hungry and unthinking as the old man had been. That one of them turned up in Washington totally didn't surprise her.

"That's a shame your majesty, but a promise is a promise," the man said, with no apparent hostility in his voice. But then that family had always been good at hiding their intentions.

"I'm sorry to have wasted your time mister…" the queen said politely, and Anna wanted to shout _don't be fooled!_

"Hans Westergard," he said, and Anna was shocked he didn't burst into flame right there and then. _You don't know he's like Leif,_ a small part of her said, but was drowned out by the rest of her that was hissing with bile. He remained resolutely un-harmed by her imaginary heat-beams though, and simply raised a glass and walked off back into the party. _Good riddance._

"Ah, Ms Summerford, of course." Senator Sicklemore said, sounding just a little chillier than he had when they had talked outside the opera. Clearly by rebuffing Hans, Anna had derailed _some_ kind of plan. Like she cared.

Anna re-focussed as the President spoke, and found all eyes on her. "Yes!" she said, and managed to turn it from a small squeak into a real word.

Elsa raised a perfect gloved hand. "We met – entirely coincidentally – at a party in Virginia some weeks ago, and An- Congresswoman Summerford was kind enough to offer herself as a guide if I ever found myself in America. If you have the time?" Elsa said, pointing a pair of stunning blue eyes at her. Anna glanced down as something flashed at Elsa's breastbone, and saw the tiny snowflake pendant hanging there. Her heart soared.

"Whenever you'd like your majesty," she replied.

"Excellent," said the President, rallying. At some point Sicklemore had also faded into the background, and suddenly it was the three of them there. Anna caught a look shot at her from the leader of the free world, and nodded just a little bit. "Thank you congresswoman," he continued, and Anna knew she had just been dismissed.

She didn't mind though, because Elsa was looking at her and said: "I hope to see you later today for that tour."

Anna smiled and nodded and turned to walk away from the two leaders. She made a beeline for the nearest waiter and grabbed a tall chute of champagne, and could have chugged it right there in a weird kind of victory celebration.

_Score!_

"I find myself usurped."

As fast as she had drank it she almost spat it right back out again as the voice came from right next to her, and she found herself staring into a green pair of eyes hanging under a well-coiffured shock of red hair.

"Mr Westergard," she said, and stopped. Either because she didn't know what else to say or didn't want to risk saying something she'd regret.

"Congresswoman. After all the effort John – I'm sorry, Senator Sicklemore – went through on that little charade, you knocked it down quite easily."

Of everything she had expected him to say, _that_ hadn't been anywhere on the list. "Charade?"

"The Senator is quite eager to establish a relationship with the queen, as I think he's…demonstrated…to you already. I'm sorry, we haven't really been introduced. Hans-"

"Westergard," Anna finished for him, and couldn't _quite_ keep the venom hidden.

He heard it, and looked almost…embarrassed? Sad? _No way._ "Yes. I'm sorry, I don't blame you for reacting that way. I know you don't have the best experience with my family." He raised his own glass. "I can't imagine it was a pleasant surprise to bump into another one of us."

 _Two,_ she thought, remembering her short meeting with Leif at the opera the night before. "It was certainly a _surprise_."

"Well my father didn't send me here to sink a dagger into your back, if that's what you're worried about. Oh don't get me wrong he wants to, quite badly some days."

"Really?" she said, and couldn't help the smirk.

Hans didn't seem to mind. "Well, he's still a very comfortable man. But he misses the authority, and my brothers miss the…freedom…that came with it."

"Not you?"

"I'm not in politics," he said waving his drink airily, almost spilling it.

"And yet here you are," she couldn't _help_ but point out.

He shrugged his wide shoulders under the well-fitting suit. All the Westergards had such good suits. She wondered if there was a family tailor. Whether the man actually got paid. "The only thing I can say in my defence is that today is just a favour and not a career."

"Oh?"

"My father owes the senator, and since I was the only son in the city, I was press-ganged," Hans said, and even over the noise and distraction of the party around them she could hear the note of bitterness. She might have enquired more, if she had known him better, or if he hadn't been a goddamn Westergard. "Family, you know?"

 _I know yours._ "Yeah, exactly. I'm sorry but-"

Hans smiled apologetically and waved. "Of course, of course, you have a real job here, I'm sorry. Don't let me keep you from it. It was…well. It was a pleasure for me. Trust me congresswoman, I won't be insulted if it wasn't the same for you."

And that was, maybe, the nicest thing a Westergard had ever said so her.

* * *

It was called the Green Room apparently, in one of those breath-taking lacks of imagination that seemed par for the course when it came to naming rooms in government buildings. Not that she could talk, Arendelle Castle alone had a Portrait Room, a Greeting Room and a Northern Corridor. Who names a corridor? One of her ancestors, apparently. Apart from the light green wallpaper though, it was very pleasant, covered in ancient wood furniture polished to perfection and tableware that looked like a dozen generations of servants had kept them clean as the day they'd been made.

There were a half-dozen men in the room, but not like the others outside in the party. Where everyone outside was all easy smiles and handshakes, the most these men had done when they had entered was stand for the President and give a small bow for her. Otherwise they stood stock-still, backs almost ramrod-straight in a stance that Elsa recognised perfectly well. The smart suits on them didn't disguise who they were, and the President introducing them as General This and Admiral That was a formality.

"Congratulations again your majesty."

"Thank you sir. It's been a blessing. In many ways."

The President gave the smile that had helped get him elected. "And we look forward to watching you grow from it."

They could dance around this topic all day. "Well, maybe not _all_ of it," she said, and she could almost _feel_ the various uniforms around her shift slightly in their much more ill-fitting suits. "There are several things there that are of little use to us. For the moment."

"You have plans for the Uranium then?" the President asked, and didn't bother to be subtle about.

Mentally, Elsa took a deep breath. "Certainly, as is our national right. Arendelle relies on imports for energy, we hope to change that."

"That's one use of the stuff, certainly."

"And the others are unthinkable. We've always acceded to the rules of the Non-Proliferation Treaty," she replied quickly.

"But you haven't signed it. Can't sign it, really," the President said, and leaned back in his chair.

Wow, now that was splitting hairs. Splitting them so fine he was down to cutting atoms. Arendelle _couldn't_ be an actual signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Her father had explained it to her once. Arendelle had never signed the – and now she had to think back for the exact name – the _Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (_ God, what a name). That was the treaty that _said_ what treaties could be signed. Without having signed _that_ they technically weren't part of any _other_ treaties, they just followed them voluntarily.

"It's easy to follow the rules when you have no opportunity to break them."

Elsa turned and stared hard for a second at the military man who had just spoken. "Does us having the stuff make you so uncomfortable? We aren't likely to pack it up and sell it for a quick buck," Elsa said, and took a sip from her tea. She had just spoken to a general like he was a small boy asking a stupid question, and her hands weren't shaking at all.

The President waved a hand and the man backed down. From the silence she knew she had scored a point. Scored it off the President's own general, in his own house. "Certainly we'd feel more...secure...if we knew you were a member of the club on this one," he said.

"Is there an entry fee?" she asked with a smile.

"Every club has its dues," the President replied, and finally knew Elsa what it was he wanted.

"Quite high ones, I'd imagine?"

He shrugged. "But worth the price." He smiled. "If we're keeping this metaphor going; club members help each other."

She drained her cup and leaned forward, not minding that it ruined the line of her dress. She stared across the space between her and the President, and remembered the advice her father had given her, breath by breath, before she had left the castle for America.

 _Defend first. Charm them. Make him exhaust himself on pleasantries until_ he _makes the first move. You might_ need _things from him but he_ wants _something from you, and people who want things are greedy._

She wished her father had been here to see her win.

"It's funny you should mention help."

* * *

"Your majesty."

"Walk with me." Eva fell into step just behind her as Elsa left the Green Room, feeling eyes on her as the door swung shut. If she turned she knew she'd see the President and his generals staring at her retreating back, and she shivered. "Where's the car?"

"The side-entrance."

Elsa took a deep breath. Then another. How was it possible to do what she had just done, then turn around and have trouble saying _this?_ "If you could find Congresswoman Summerford and ask her if the offer of the tour was still available?"

Eva looked at her queen in the closest the unflappable young woman ever got to surprise. "Right now?" she asked, forgetting to add 'your majesty' in surprise.

"Yes," Elsa said, as the doors to the side entrance opened with a flourish of uniformed guards, and for the first time in hours, clean air swept through her nostrils.

Eva stole a glance at Elsa. Saw the hands clenched at her sides, scrunching up the material of the gloves. Saw her back ramrod-straight and tense. "Of course your majesty, right away," she said softly, and vanished into the crowd.

Elsa let out a deep breath she felt she had been holding in all day. She wanted to close her eyes and collapse back onto something warm and comfy, but she told herself to hang on for just a little longer. She smelled petrol and turned to see the limo draw up next to her. It seemed like ever since she had arrived in America she had spent a good third of her time inside them, but right now she could use the time away from the attention. She mentally implored the guard to hurry up, and she climbed in the second he had it open.

She managed to last until the door was closed again before practically collapsing against the seats, the cool leather against her back feeling indescribably good.

"Your majesty."

"Gerda," Elsa said without opening her eyes.

"How did it go?" her chief of staff asked her, watching as Elsa, the queen of a nation, in a designer expensive dress, lay back on the leather seats with an arm flung over her eyes like a girl who had just been rejected. Then she caught the smile.

Elsa opened her eyes. Gerda and Kristoff sat across from her, facing back. The expression on her chief's face was drawn, waiting. Kristoff was looking out of the limo window, a little bored. American Secret Servicemen surrounded every square metre of the place. Marshall sat up front next to the driver. They were bored. "Would you go in and meet with the President's chief of staff? I believe very shortly he'll have some...informal agreement, that he would like us to look at."

Gerda smiled as she opened the door, the light and noise spilling in. "At once your majesty," she said with a smile of her own. _That's my girl_.

Elsa listened as Gerda climbed out of the limo, shutting the door behind her, and she was enveloped in the comfortable silence. _I did it,_ she thought with a smile. It wasn't a perfect deal, but it was as close as she could make it. They could hammer out the details over the coming year, but when she got back to Arendelle tom- later next week, she'd do it knowing that the ghoul perched on her mountain wouldn't be there for very much longer.

"Some good news then?" Kristoff asked. She nodded. "Good. I'm sick of those jerks stumbling around the place." More than once the Areldelle City police had caught employees from the mining company wandering around looking for trouble, or looking for things they shouldn't have been. Once they'd found someone hammering on the castle gates, drunkenly shouting for the gift shop. Kristoff and the rest of the forces would be damn glad when Weselton and his goons finally decamped and left for good.

Then the noise returned, as Elsa heard a new voice coming from outside, getting louder.

"-st in here? Are you sure?"

Then the limo door opened, and a shock of red hair poked itself in. A pair of startlingly-green eyes searched the inside of the limo, and immediately met her own. She smiled. "Hello Anna."

* * *

Anna climbed into the limo and sat down as the door shut with a soft _thunk_ behind her, blocking out the light of the afternoon sun and the noise as people came and went from the party, and suddenly it was just her and Elsa alone in a relatively silent limo. "Elsa. Hi. Kristoff. Hi too." Goddamnit, she was still tongue-tied. She _knew_ from the second that the Eva woman had tapped her on the arm that she was coming here to meet Elsa, and yet still whenever she was in the same space as the queen she transformed from an adult into a nervous teenager. "Is it just us?"

"I needed a break from…all that," the queen said, and gestured toward the window of the limo. She looked at Anna and smiled. "And I wanted someone to finally give me a tour of this place."

"The President offered…"

"I want- I just preferred you," Elsa said, and Anna could tell there was something…different about her. When they had met at Weselton's party the queen had been tired, exhausted almost. When they had met at the opera it had been the dead of night and Anna could only imagine how she was feeling after a day of plane-rides and an evening with the President. But now they sat across from each other and Elsa looked…different. There was no other way to explain it. "If you wanted to. If you're free?" Elsa asked as she stayed silent.

"No! I mean not no, yes. Yes I'm free. Well…how long do you have?"

"Until six, you have-" came the answer from Kristoff, who immediately got a dirty look. They said something to other clearly in Norwegian that made the huge man cringe. She caught the word _Gerda,_ who she vaguely remembered as someone who worked for Elsa. There was a _sorry_ in there too.

She turned back to Anna. "Well, what's there to see in the afternoon?" she asked.

Anna smiled.

* * *

"It _can_ get a little stuffy being around all that ceremony huh?" Anna said as the limo rolled through the city streets. The only bad thing about the limo giving them a quiet place to talk was that it dimmed the light coming in from outside. They slowly rolled through traffic, mainly ignored by the people there – a few tourists flashed cameras – just another expensive car on streets full of them.

"How do you manage it?" Elsa asked, leaning forward in the limo. The silence after two days of mass socialising was wonderful. Just herself and Anna. Finally she was free of the President and that senator and all the rest of them. Finally she was free to just _talk._ She wanted to know more about Anna, and not just as Congresswoman Summerford.

"How do _I_ manage it?" Anna asked in disbelief. "How about _you?_ A queen is a little bit higher than just a congresswoman right?"

Elsa smiled and played with her braid. "Well, not really. It's just myself and my family. Everyone else in the castle is really just an advisor or a councillor, they're not elected like you are."

"Well, it can get a little weird," Anna admitted. "Frantic. You always feel like you're running for election, since it's so often. Although that was the idea, supposedly. The Founding Fathers wanted us to always be running so we wouldn't forget who it was who elected us and what we were here to do. Not like the senators who can take their time."

"It sounds exhausting," Elsa said, propping her head up on her arm while Anna talked. She could have sworn the woman's voice was almost hypnotic.

She watched as Anna's eyes lit up. "Well, yes, it can be. But it helps you to not get distracted you know? There's some senators I think haven't been back to their homes in _years_ , but I always find time to go back and keep in contact, really stay connected with my people."

Elsa wondered what kind of people could draw out these kinds of feelings in this woman, and felt just a little…ashamed? No, that wasn't the word. She pushed the feeling aside as the limo slowed.

Anna turned to her with a smile. "First stop," she said as the door opened. She stepped out into the sun and without thinking about protocol or decorum, Elsa grabbed it. She stepped out of the car, and looked up as the glare of the sun dimmed. _This_ place she would have recognised from a hundred Hollywood movies. Anna had already walked a few paces away as Elsa adjusted her dress, and then turned back with her hands held up like a child showing off something they had built to a parent.

"The Lincoln Memorial?" Elsa asked, and laughed a little as Anna deflated. "I'm sorry."

The smile didn't go away though. "Come up here."

The dresses made things a little awkward, and more than a few people pointed as Anna, Elsa, Marshall and Kristoff made their way from the road to the plateau that the huge statue rested on. Elsa fought the urge to blush or cringe, and stood next to Anna as they both stared up at the giant figure that sat above them. Strange how more people even in her _own_ country could probably name this dead American president than any historical figures from Arendelle's history. She glanced at Anna and saw the smile on her face as she said a few words about him. Her face had the same expression as when she had been talking about her own job.

"Now look."

Before Elsa could react a warm pair of hands grabbed and turned her – stronger than they looked – and Elsa found herself staring down the entire length of the park, towards a huge needle that shot up into the sky. She stared down at the endless green lawn, and suddenly she was just one more young tourist and not visiting royalty. "Wow," she whispered, staring down the length of the reflecting pool. With the perfect day and the sun high in the sky it looked like a chunk of the earth had been exchanged with the sky, and clouds were drifting lazily through the hole in the earth. If she looked down far enough she could see where the pool ended at a shining white amphitheatre, and beyond _that_ the huge stone obelisk of the Washington Monument.

"Sometimes I like to come here and just watch," Anna said.

"Speaking of watching…" Kristoff whispered to the two women, keeping both his hands at his sides as they drew more attention just standing there.

But Elsa wasn't listening.

* * *

"Just wish there'd been room in this dress for my phone…" Anna muttered. If she had planned this better they might have come in just suits, or something that blended better, or basically anything but dresses for a high-society party. Although if she had waited for the second chance she might have missed _this,_ as she looked at Elsa staring down the length of the National Mall with a beatific smile on her face.

"Congresswoman?"

She stopped thinking about how to add pockets to a ball-gown when she heard the voice address her, and turned to see…well…tourists. A family of three, the man in a NY baseball cap (of course) and a T-shirt he had probably bought at one of the endless souvenir shops that dotted the streets by the Mall. The woman was much the same. A small girl was attached to the woman at the wrist, staring at the park around her in a look that made it totally clear she would rather be throwing Frisbee or chasing dogs like the other kids, rather than being dragged around Washington by her parents.

"Hello," Anna said, smiling down at them. "You folks visiting?" she asked, knowing the answer.

"First day," the man said, shaking Anna's hand. He had that southern drawl she recognised. Austin, probably, or close to it.

"We recognised you from the news. Well, not like _that_ exactly but…" the wife said, and Anna realised what she must look like.

"Well, I don't usually dress like this but…" she shrugged.

"You're really pretty," the little girl whispered, and Anna bent down to speak to her without thinking.

"Thank you," she said with a smile. "We just came from a party."

But the little girl was already looking past Anna, towards where Elsa and Kristoff were standing. "Is that lady wearing a _crown_? Is she a _princess?_ " the girl whispered in awe, another of a generation that had grown up on princess movies.

Anna leaned closer to the tiny child and the two of them looked back up the stairs. "Even better, she's a _queen_ ," she mock-whispered into the kid's ear, staring back up at Elsa, who was looking down at them with a faint smile. "Whoops, careful," she said, grabbing the balloon that the enchanted child had let go of, consumed by awe. "Here you go."

"Congresswoman…"

She turned to Kristoff. "Just a second." Back to the family. "Sorry, I'm kind of playing tour guide myself today," she said apologetically.

"Is she really a queen?" the man asked, lifting his phone up.

"Yeah, she is." _Hey, wait a…_ "Can I borrow your phone for a second?"

"Sure," the man said, looking like he was in kind of a daze himself.

Other people were watching them, but Anna ignored them as she turned around and made a hand-shuffling motion. Elsa tilted her head, confused, but it wasn't meant for _her._ Kristoff got it immediately and moved himself out of the frame, and Anna smiled and snapped off the perfect shot. Elsa, looking down at them and smiling in her dress and tiara, the figure of Lincoln in his chair just visible in the distance. She quickly e-mailed the picture to herself, and handed the phone back. "Thanks. Hope you enjoy the rest of your visit," she said to the family. She winked down at the little girl, who almost lost hold of her balloon again.

"You're welcome."

She gave a small wave and turned to Kristoff. "Thanks. Sorry for making your job harder, let's move on before the crowd gets any worse."

"There's unlikely to be snipers waiting in the rooftops," the tall blonde said.

"Rather not take that chance."

* * *

"So that's how you got elected the first time?" Elsa asked with a smile as they climbed back into the limo. She couldn't stop smiling somehow, after watching Anna and that family of tourists. She stole one glance back at them before Kristoff closed the door, and she could have sworn the tiny little girl actually curtsied at her before the reinforced metal and tempered glass of the government car shielded them from view.

"Oh, yes. Every family, one by one."

 _I believe you'd do it, too._ "I like our way better though," she said. "I don't think I could do what you do. Run for election I mean, even if my country is a lot smaller than yours. I guess ultimate power has its perks," she said, and liked the way Anna laughed.

"Don't ever tell my constituents but some days I really think 'yeah, I'd prefer to be a tyrant if it meant not running for things all the time'."

"Oh? I thought you said you enjoyed it?" she teased.

"The _elections_ I'm fine with, the people I'm running against not so much," Anna said.

"Oh?" But as soon as the word came from her mouth Elsa saw how Anna changed. She shut down, just a little. "Another time, maybe."

"Another time," Anna replied, her smile a little glassier than before.

She wanted desperately to change the subject. To anything. To get away from whatever bad memory she had accidentally dragged up. "So is Lincoln your own personal hero? Everyone I've talked with in America seems to worship the man."

The glass smile was instantly replaced by a real one. "No," Anna said. "That's last. We have time for a couple more places before then. Next stop; Roosevelt."

"Seems like most of the places you're taking me to are of old dead leaders," she said, and watched as Anna panicked. "I'm just teasing you."

"Well…I don't really want to get in the way of the President, I know he probably has plans for that kind of thing."

 _Not really,_ Elsa thought. What the President wanted from her they had already talked about. She suspected that if she feigned illness and went home now he wouldn't mind so much. But then she would miss out on today. And later; Anna's home. She didn't want the time to end. She wanted to ask more questions. Not about Washington though or what monument was named after what dead leader she had no connection to. She wanted to know more about Anna. What _she_ was like.

* * *

"So what's your story?" Anna asked as they walked. She was basking, feeling more than a little confident. The Lincoln Monument had gone spectacularly well, and she was eager to check her inbox for that picture. After that they had walked the World War Two memorial, had looked at the old statue of Roosevelt – both of them looking a little more at the dog it seemed – and now, here.

Kristoff almost missed a step when he realised that Anna was speaking to him and not Elsa. "Whose, mine?" he asked, a little wide-eyed.

"Well, I've seen you around a few times now and you don't really act like a normal bodyguard." _That_ was putting it mildly. Oh, he was huge and had arms that could probably bend steel, and he didn't smile much, so he had the basic shape and size and mood down perfectly. But compared to literally every other bodyguard she had ever met on duty Kristoff was a ray of sunshine.

"Kristoff is an old friend," Elsa said, turning away from the wall. She wasn't smiling, this _definitely_ wasn't the place for that, but there was a small hint of one. "Go ahead Kristoff."

The bodyguard turned – to check on the other, even bigger, bodyguard that Elsa had brought with her, Anna realised – and then back to Anna. Even when he talked though he kept his eyes moving over everyone and everything that got near them, and his hands were always free. "We knew each other growing up, sort of. More or less," the big man said. "We went to the same school."

"You went to regular school?" Anna said, then cursed. "Err, sorry, that sounded dumb."

"Yeah, she did. Her parents were always pretty big on not taking El- her majesty too far away from the people she'd rule one day," Kristoff went on as they walked and talked. "Call it serendipity, but she, well…"

"Even as a child Kristoff watched out for me," Elsa said.

"Long story," Kristoff agreed. "I ended up looking out for her back then, somehow."

More old stories. Anna wanted to know all of them. "A little knight for a little princess," she teased.

He almost – _almost –_ blushed. "Hey, most boys had the same dream."

"But you lived it. That's romantic," Anna said, smiling. She knew the Vietnam Memorial by heart, knew exactly which slam of sheer black they were headed for. She didn't come here often. Not nearly often enough, if she wanted to admit it. But she wanted Elsa to open up to her, and this…well…you have to give trust to get trust, her father always said. Just a few more steps… "Here."

Elsa peered at the endless list of names but… "Where?"

Gently, Anna grasped a gloved hand in hers, covering Elsa's hand with her palm, and lifted and pointed with it. The material of their gloves slipped over each other. "Here."

EZRA SUMMERFORD

"An uncle?"

"Granddad."

"I'm sorry."

Anna smiled at the pure sincerity and worry there. "Don't be. I'd like to say he volunteered, but nah. His number just came up and he'd been out of school long enough to be eligible. His wife was already pregnant – lucky for dad and me – and he simply…didn't come back." She had checked with the VA, and Corporal Ezra Summerford had went on patrol one morning and his squad simply never came back. She had found out that there were fresh flowers on this part of the Wall every year though. "She said he didn't complain about it. Sometimes you got called up for your country and whether you went or not showed how much you believed in it. So he went." The family didn't talk about Granddad much, and she had never asked, but Anna had always thought that Grandad was a big reason her father went into politics.

"We have nothing like this in Arendelle," Elsa said, staring at the huge edifice.

"You're lucky," she replied, glancing at her travelling companion. The sun was beginning to fall, and the afternoon was steadily darkening. "You should probably go back, people are probably waiting for you."

"They are," Kristoff replied, pointedly looking at the limo that had been slowly trailing them on the road nearby.

Elsa turned to her. In the late afternoon her eyes were still luminous. "Wasn't there one place you wanted to go…?" she asked.

Anna's heart beat once. "If you think you have the time to-"

"I do."

* * *

She didn't know what to say about things like this. How could she? Her family were royalty after all, handed everything they ever had. Oh, certainly some of her ancestors had died in combat, shouting about glory for Arendelle. But not since the invention of gunpowder. Certainly not in living memory. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's important, I just…I thought you should see some of the bad, as well as the good," Anna replied, teasing a stray lock of hair. She had a look on her face Elsa knew well, because it was one that her mother had said Elsa herself used a lot growing up. Trying to hide sadness.

She spared the woman having to ask. "My parents always kept themselves to themselves. They always thought just because we were the royals didn't mean we should put ourselves any further above the people than we had to. That's why they sent me to a regular school."

"That's admirable."

She smiled. "Yes, it was. I enjoyed it." She had. When she was very young nobody cared that she was a princess. "I wanted to be an architect."

"Did something happen?" Anna asked.

 _I said too much,_ she thought instinctively. But Anna was looking at her and there was only concern on her face. _She doesn't know._ "My father became ill. He had to…well…he had to step down, and I became queen."

"I'm sorry," Anna said, a look of pain and sympathy on her face. Sympathy, from a woman who had just come from her dead grandfather's grave. She glanced out of the window as the limo rolled to a stop in the dusk. "Last stop. We're here." She stepped out of the limo quickly, so quickly that for a second Elsa feared it was to get away from _her._ She climbed out after her, and found herself…she had no idea. They had crossed a river when she wasn't paying attention and could see the National Mall behind her (why was it called a mall? Wasn't that an American word for shopping centre?) and the Washington Monument. In front of her was a domed building with a large statue inside, like the Lincoln Memorial. But unlike the old bearded man on his throne this one wasn't covered in tourists.

She walked after Anna.

* * *

"Thomas Jefferson," she said, looking up at the statue of the old man.

"So, this is your hero?" Elsa said from beside her, as they both sat on one of the smooth benches that lined the inside of the pavilion. There was only an inch or so between them and Anna felt the skin on her arm crackle where it was closest to her. _Just the cold._

She had always liked this place. It was usually a lot quieter than the other big presidential memorials. Just a covered stone pavilion – not even that big really – with the man himself stood in the middle. Inscribed on the walls facing inwards were passages from the Declaration, ones she'd memorised by heart years ago. Sometimes when she thought the job might be too much, or she'd been talking just a little too long with ignorant assholes or uncaring politicians, she would come here as night fell and sit alone inside, staring up and wondering what he would have thought.

 _We hold these truths to be self-evident._ Words repeated so many times they'd been reduced to cheap platitudes, but Anna always kept them close in her heart, kept them in mind whenever she spoke.

"That's beautiful," Elsa said when Anna finished telling her. "He must have been a great man."

"Even if none of them were perfect I think he was the closest," Anna replied, staring up at him. "Hard to see how the rest of us can match up to something like that," she whispered. "Sometimes I wonder how I'd react if something really important happened." One of those things that made her shiver a little bit when she really thought about it. One of the things that Leif had poked her with during the first campaign. Had she ever _really_ been tested?

Elsa's reply came through just as quietly, at the same time as she put her hand down on top of Anna's: "You'd do fine."

"Thank you," Anna replied, still looking up at the statue, trying not to be too distracted by the hand laying on her own.

"This day has been a treasure Anna, thank you," the beautiful voice said softly.

Anna looked away from good old Thomas and caught Elsa looking at her. Head tilted a little back, that amazingly long and sleek braid cascading across her neck and down her cheek. With the faint lights coming from the ceiling shining down on them, Elsa looked like the brightest thing in the memorial. Her hand felt cold against Anna's own even through two layers of gloves and she imagined she could feel it radiating through her and tamping down the blush that seemed to radiate through her body. She felt her upper body move as it felt like some force was sucking her forwards.

She felt tipsy even though at the party she had barely finished a second glass. _I need to say something,_ she thought, the words coming into her brain sluggishly and fragmented. Those flawless blue eyes had entrapped her. She was leaning far too close. Too close.

"I…" she whispered, and she saw Elsa twitch as she said the word.

"Your majesty. Congresswoman."

And suddenly the spell was broken. She _wrenched_ herself away from Elsa and stood up straight, brushing herself down and looking everywhere but at the young queen like a girl caught making out with a secret boyfriend. Both of them looked back to see Marshall standing by – almost blocking really – the stairway, pointedly glancing at the phone in his hand, and glancing back at a second limo that had arrived, and stood idle by their own with a door open. Inside it Anna could spot two figures; the woman she had met at the party and someone else she didn't recognise but from the look of her, legs crossed and arms folded across her chest, screamed _chief of staff_ just as effectively as Kai did."We should- you should probably…" she stammered out.

"I have to go," Elsa said quickly, breathlessly almost. "Thank you again Anna, it's been…thank you."

"It's been a pleasure," Anna said.

And before she could stop herself, before her brain could even register that she was moving, she took a single step forwards and kissed Elsa light on the cheek.

For a half-second Elsa just stood there as the two kept staring at each other. A blue-gloved hand came up to brush against her cheek, then… "I have to go," the queen whispered, so quietly Anna almost didn't hear her.

"Are you still visiting Texas?" Anna asked quickly, as Kristoff and Marshall formed up around Elsa. She felt rooted to the spot, like her shoes had become part of the memorial as Elsa moved away from her.

"I…yes. Yes, of course!" Elsa turned back. The evening breeze sent her dress rippling like the ocean as her braid fluttered against her shoulder. The little girl had been right, she really _did_ look like a fairytale princess.

Anna watched as the limo doors closed and the long sleek vehicle pulled away, leaving her alone on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial, staring at it as it crossed the bridge back towards the city centre. Lights were already coming on as night descended and cars were already turning on their beams, making Washington look like a city of moving suns.

A dark shape moved up next to her. The driver of the limo. Just the two of them now, Marshall leaving with his queen. "Congresswoman, do you want to head back?" he asked. He looked at her for a second, then asked again. "Are you alright?"

She nodded in reply, but her thoughts were taken up with Elsa's face as they had sat in the empty memorial. Without another word she went down the steps into her own, now-empty limo.

She sat on the spot that Elsa had been sitting on. It made her feel a little better.

* * *

_What was that. What was that. What was that._

"Your majesty, are you alright?" Gerda asked.

Elsa realised she was holding her fingers up to her cheek, and put her hands back on her lap. She imagined she could still feel the heat from that…barely a kiss. More like a touch. A light brush, maybe. Did American women habitually kiss each other when departing? Oh god she really, really, wished she knew. "I'm fine," she said, and then realised she had barely moved her lips. "I'm fine, really."

"Your majesty, do you need anything?" Eva asked, much more gently than Gerda had. Elsa looked at the face of her press secretary and her stomach lurched as she saw the black-haired woman smile and tap her cheek.

Her heart lurched in her chest. Quickly Elsa rubbed at the spot and tried to disguise it in a yawn as she looked at her gloves. A small smudge. "Can we turn up the heat a little?" she asked.

Gerda and Kristoff shared a look. "Certainly."

"Take us back to the embassy please. It's been a long day." She looked out of the window.

"A good one though, I'm sure we all agree," Eva said, looking at her queen staring out of the window as the city passed them by, either daydreaming or catnapping on the drive back.

 _Anna's lipstick was red,_ was what Elsa was thinking.

* * *

She didn't even change. She just lay in her back staring up at the white cracked ceiling.

 _Stupid. Stupid. So stupid. What were you_ thinking _?_

She hadn't been thinking at all. Not a single part of her. What the _hell_ had she thought she was doing? She felt a blush covering her face and covered her head with her hands, as if that could ward it off. Everything had been going perfectly today and then she had tripped up at the last goddamned hurdle. She wouldn't have been surprised at all if Elsa had simply stood up and ran from her right then. Kristoff pulling his glock and gunning her down might have been preferable to the sheer embarrassment she was feeling right now.

_But she didn't run. She still wants to come to Texas. She's looking forward to seeing you again._

She reached for the phone she kept by her bedside and dialled from memory. She knew that the other end would pick up. She knew he had a ridiculous ringtone just for her, so he would know it was her calling.

" _What's up kiddo?_ " the deep but cheerful – even at this hour – reply came from across the airwaves.

"Daddy, did you have any…any kind of party or event arranged in the next couple of days?" she asked, skipping pleasantries.

" _You know me."_

That was a yes then. "I need to come home, for a little bit," she whispered. "And I need it to not look weird and I need to bring people…involved with my job."

Her father's voice changed over the line. He always had been able to read her best. _"Is everything alright darling?"_

She smiled. "I started playing in the big leagues daddy, and now I have to entertain someone...almost a friend, and someone else who really isn't."

A long pause, and then: _"Is this about what I've been watching on the news? You looked beautiful when you all walked into the White House. So did that young thing with the crown everyone's been talking about. Is this something to do with her as well?"_

Even covered in exhaustion and her own stupid embarrassment she still had the humour to smile. "Assuming the news got ninety-percent of it wrong but the basic idea right, then; yes, it's about that." Just talking to her father made her feel better. She could imagine him sat at home on one of their big chairs, the fireplace roaring beside him and a huge dog splayed out somewhere nearby. "Can you get something together suitable to entertain a silly young congresswoman, a foreign queen, and an old senator?"

She could almost see him preening in his seat as he imagined the guests he was going to be entertaining. He had always loved holding court. Now he'd have an actual court to entertain. Entertaining a queen? He'd be able to add a whole _bookshelf_ worth of stories and bragging rights to his after-dinner repertoire. _"Which senator?"_ he asked.

"Sicklemore. Virginia."

" _A_ Virginian _? God. Well, the butchers probably have some offal we can prepare for him. We'll be waiting at the gates for you Anna. Come back soon sweetie. Your mother and I will be thrilled."_

"Thanks daddy. Goodnight." She would get a plane tomorrow, Kai could deal with the fallout. That was his job after all, and wasn't he always the one telling her she needed to take breaks?

She closed the line and just stared up at the ceiling. She imagined that her lips still tingled where they had brushed up against that smooth white skin, and she had the sudden and strong urge to touch her hands to them. _God, what was that? What_ was _that?_ Blue eyes staring into her hers that she had almost fallen into, for real this time. That voice she could have listened to for hours. And then another thought that came through over those and pushed them out of the way as she drifted off to sleep, still in the ball-gown:

_I can't wait to go back home._


	7. Chapter 7

_"You have everything?"_

" _Yes Kai."_

" _You have the schedule for the arrival?"_

" _Yes Kai."_

" _The requirements list for the Queen and her entourage."_

" _Yes Kai."_

" _The list for Sicklemore and_ his _entourage?"_

" _Yes Kai."_

" _Are you gonna ask her if she packed her toothbrush and a spare pair of underwear too?"_

_They stood outside the tall brownstone building as Anna put the final suitcase into the rented car. Even in Washington, where the old swampland sometimes seemed to bubble up and make the city a sweltering nightmare, the encroaching winter was starting to make itself felt, and Anna was wrapped up in something wooly and red and hideous her father had given her from some ancient Christmas. Staring there looking at Kai, who looked like a very sombre Christmas pudding in his suit and red scarf, and Tiana, who was seemingly impervious to the weather and had nothing more than a light green dress on and a shawl, she felt like a teenager about to set off for her college dorm. She wondered if Kai was going to ask her to phone every day- oh, wait._

" _Keep in contact with the office, you still have the vote on funding for the arts on the calendar, and you'll need to tele-commute for your committee."_

" _Yes dad."_

" _Ignore this old political robot Anna. You go and see your family and forget about this town for a while," Tiana said with a lopsided smile at the aforementioned robot. "Take your girl out for a dinner or something. Some real Texan food. Not as good as Louisiana but it's fair enough."_

 _Anna felt a brush creep up her neck and willed it to halt before it peeked over her scarf. "I don't think we'll do anything so…err…informal? Maybe? Plus she'll probably want to talk to Senator Sicklemore a little more than me."_ No she won't, _she thought, and found in it a little thrill._

_Tiana rolled her eyes as Kai nodded appreciatively. "You're aware how serious this is at least," he said. He paused, then… "Are you certain you don't want me to-"_

" _No! No. We'll manage fine," Anna said as quickly as she could without being out-and-out rude. "I know how these things go, plus you know dad will be on-hand." The man of a million state dinners. If nothing else her father would make certain this weekend would go well._

 _God, a whole weekend. She had spent all last night – really_ all _the nights since the White House reception – wondering if she was making an absolutely gigantic mistake. The_ first _night afterwards, she had spent all night staring up at her ceiling, mentally kicking herself and almost bringing herself to tears. How could she have been so_ stupid _?_ Kissing _her. Like they were in France or something. Everything had been going so,_ so _well, and then that. She had barely slept running through every horrible result that could come from a single moment of idiocy. The next day she had waited on tenterhooks, like a student who knew they had done something bad but didn't know if any teachers had spotted her. In her case the teacher was a reporter, and she scoured every inch of the papers delivered to the Capitol praying she wouldn't spot herself. She hadn't. A dodged bullet, then. The rest of the week had passed kind of in a daze as Elsa's Chief of Staff, the Gerda woman, had talked with Kai to confirm some details. It was still happening. The final night, the night before, she had run through in her mind the exact predicament she had found herself in._

 _Item one: The Queen of Arendelle was visiting her, Congresswoman Anna Summerford's home for two days and two nights. Said Queen being…well…a_ queen. _Of a nation._

_Item two: Senator John Sicklemore of Virginia was visiting her, still Congresswoman Anna Summerford, with the express intention of cornering the above queen. Probably something to do with her mountain and the insane amount of money inside it. He wasn't subtle._

_Item three: She, who was still and would probably remain Congresswoman Anna Summerford, had suggestions – not orders, no sir – from the actual for-real President of the United States, to make as nice with the Queen mentioned way back up there. As nice as possible._

_Item four: Congresswoman Anna Summerford was looking forward to this weekend more than anything else she could remember in her entire life._

" _-God knows you'll need it," Kai finished, as Anna stared into nothing. "Did you hear me Anna?"_

" _No, but I'll assume you wished me good luck," she replied, and smiled. "I'll see you in a few days."_

" _Go, before he finds a reason to make you stay!" Tiana almost shouted at her._

_She climbed in and gunned the engine, giving the old brownstone one more look. She would miss it, she had to admit. A two-room apartment shared between a dozen or more girls wasn't what most people would call a home, but Anna still loved it there. "Take care you two," she said, pulling out of the parking space, and started the long drive home._

* * *

_The stars at night,_

_Are big and bright,_

"Deep in the heeeeart, of Texas…" Anna sang under her breath, as she twisted the wheel and pulled up to the big wooden archway that told her she was about to enter the Summerford Ranch. She could imagine she was sixteen again and coming back home after graduating high school. Nothing about the old drive had changed. There was still an ancient scrap of leather that her father had told her had been a Dreamcatcher, a gift from a local and long-gone Native tribe, but was more likely just some old scrap that had been caught in the wind and nobody knew how to get down. The weathered old archway still leaned a bit to the left, her dad's promise to one day get a hammer and whack it back to the centre decades-old now. There was even an old ox lazily chewing on the daffodils in the grass near the fence, just like there was every time she came home. It looked up as she passed by, and she waved at it.

Sometimes Anna wondered if one day she would turn up the drive and it wouldn't feel like home anymore. It was a good half a year since her last visit. Washington just kept her so busy, and then when she _did_ come home sometimes she felt like she was using her family like some kind of quaint English bed-and-breakfast, just sleeping and eating there while she did her work visiting the rest of the state.

Even the house didn't seem to have changed as she drew up to it. A giant white edifice that endless Summerfords going back decades had kept neat and pristine, every generation adding a few rooms or a whole wing, as they'd steadily changed from frontier herdsmen to established cattle ranchers to statesmen. It had started as simple timber, but as they'd grown more successful and the herds had doubled and tripled they'd torn it down and replaced it with a colonial-style mansion like everyone else had. Nothing ostentatiously huge or tacky like Weselton's castle, but a respectable dozen or so rooms on two floors of gorgeous stone that she would put up against an old English country home or the Governor's mansion any day, with a few small guest houses scattered here and there across the property. Her father still corrected people with the words 'ranch house' when they called it a mansion, but he wasn't kidding anyone.

Her enjoyment at seeing the old place was dwarfed though as she rolled he rental car to a stop and saw the person waiting between the two white pillars that held the roof over the huge front doors.

"Darling!"

She smiled. No, she shouldn't worry about coming back one day and finding herself a stranger. It would always be home. "Daddy!"

Old Governor Summerford smelled like polished oak and rum as she practically jumped into his arms and he wrapped them around her. Young children think their parents are immortal, and Anna hadn't quite kicked herself of that belief yet. Her father didn't really age, he just matured over the years. A few greys here and there, maybe a line or two on the forehead, but he still looked just the same as she remembered last time she had been back. The same ratty old tan jacket and slacks, the same Longhorns baseball cap he'd kept for a decade because it was 'ironic'. The same old bushy but well-groomed facial hair that made kissing him feel like rubbing bristles across her face.

Lawrence Summerford – never Larry – smiled as he wrapped his daughter to him as tightly as he could and forgot for a second that she was a grown woman and his representative. "How you doing kid?" he whispered into her hair.

"It's good to be back," she said.

"Wasn't what I asked, darling," he said with a smile. "Not good enough to fool your old dad yet."

She drew back and smiled. "Later, okay?" It was _so_ good to be home. She took a deep breath and the air felt purer, not choked with a thousand cars carrying a thousand important people.

"Well come on in, your mother's been cooking all morning."

"Really?"

Even the inside hadn't changed since her last visit, all polished white banisters and paintings on the wall. It reminded her of that awful Weselton's mansion, except where the crooked old industrialist had slathered hunting trophies and paintings of himself holding them over practically every square inch not covered in gold light fixtures, their own parlour only had an old shotgun hanging on the wall. Just below that was a painting of three old and tired-looking men, the original ranchers that had founded the place and built the first log-cabin here, the one on the left in a beaten cow-skin jacket her great-great-great-etc grandfather. The bottom-left edge of the brass was worn away, shiny smooth brass instead of the ornate twisting that the rest of the picture-frame had. Every day when they had gone to work, her father and mother had brushed a hand against that painting for a little luck and grit from their ancestors, and she had done the same.

* * *

The mansion – call it what it was – had two kitchens, and they sat in the smaller one. The one that still resembled an actual family kitchen, rather than the bigger one that they used when company came and that resembled an industrial machine more than a place food was made. It wasn't huge, just enough room for a cooker, fridge and other necessary machinery, and a table with a few chairs on it. The fridge still had magnets on them that held pictures she had drawn when she was a kid, yellowing around the edges now and the GOOD JOB ANNA messages from her teachers in fading red ink. Coming from DC to here was like stepping out of time, or dodging through a busy freeway to relax on a grass bank. She could feel herself unwinding just sitting here, chomping away on pecan pie.

Her father went straight to work. "So is she as pretty as real life as she looks in the paper?"

 _Prettier,_ she tried to say through a mouthful of pie, which ended up sounding closer to _pwiwiuh_. Her parents had a long history of trying to understand their daughter through foodstuffs.

"She's certainly captured attention."

"Even down here?"

"We have television in Texas, Anna," her mother chided her gently. She had green eyes just like her daughter, which seemed to glint whenever she found something funny. The freckles that covered Anna though seemed to have skipped a generation, because Bethany Summerford's skin was clear as day. She had always been jealous of that. "Ours is colour and everything."

"Alright mom, alright. Any other technological advances happen while I was up in Washington DC, city of the future?" she asked with a smile, and dodged a gentle slap.

"A whole bunch of schools got a new round of computers this semester," her father said. "Finally."

Anna leaned forward. " _Really_?" That was one of the things she had fought hardest for in her election campaign. Leif had mocked her mercilessly for trying to put videogames into classrooms, especially when the old ones they already had worked perfectly fine, thankyouverymuch. Even if you sometimes had to whack them a few times to get the colours to show up, and needed to do all your work via passing floppy-discs back and forth. Anna had disagreed, and so had every teacher that had ended up voting for her. She'd fought hard to slide that through committee and get it on someone else's bill, on the grounds that maybe kids should learn about the modern world on a computer built in it, rather than ones from the stone-age that overheated trying to connect to Google.

Her father reached across the table and tweaked his beaming daughter's cheek. "Proud of you scout."

"Just getting started dad."

"Apparently! Kai's been filling me in on everything that you've been up to-"

"He _what_?"

"Come on kid, you didn't expect me to just sit by and wait for you to call?" her dad said, leaning back and smiling at this act of incredible intelligence-gathering.

"Well, he could at least have told me he was spying for you."

"We're very proud of you dear," her mother said, pecking her on the cheek and sitting down with her own slice of pie. She didn't let Lawrence anywhere near the cooker now that she was retired. Caterers for parties were all well and good but if the family was going to eat anything it was going to be well-cooked, and not burned or half-frozen. "We're eager to meet this queen, from what we've read she sounds lovely."

Anna squirmed in her seat, just a little. First her father reminding her she hadn't visited recently, now her mother reminding her she hadn't written anything at all about this. She really was a horrible daughter sometimes. "She is, she's a great person," she said.

"Are you sure she'll be fine in Texas? Isn't it very hot here compared to…wherever it is she's from?"

"It's called Arendelle."

"If the woman can survive that swampy nest of vipers she can survive us."

 _Funny, you never called it that when you had a government job._ "She'll be fine dad."

"Arendelle...It sounds very exotic," her mother pondered.

"It's in Europe, mother. Norway isn't exotic."

"Well, we can just turn the AC up."

* * *

They walked across the immaculate lawn of the mansion's front grounds. If she had been younger Anna might have shucked off her shoes and ran for the nearest tree. The Summerford acres used to have a wonderful bayou tree that Anna had claimed as her own and loved, kept by her grandmother to remind her of…something. She had clambered up and around it for years, so much that her dad used to tease her that the bark had her footprints engraved on them. She'd grown older though, and her attention had been torn away little by little from climbing trees to something a little more…exciting…

"Hey guys!" Anna shouted, throwing open the door to the stables. On cue a couple of huge brown shapes trotted up to her, either because they recognised her voice or – more likely, she had to admit – because of the bag of apples and leftovers she had carried from the kitchen.

"See, they missed you," her father said, watching with a smile as his daughter wrapped a hand around the flanks of the first horse to nibble up to her.

"They missed me feeding them."

"Same difference with these animals," her father said, and Anna stuck her tongue out at him in retaliation as she brought out an apple and held it up on her open palm.

She had loved horses ever since she had bruised one too many limbs to really love climbing up trees. She loved how majestic they were towering above her as a girl, and when she grew up and took her first riding lessons she loved how _fast_ they were. Her first ride it had felt as if she could have travelled the world in a day. Her father had always kept his feet firmly on the ground but he'd let Anna have what she wanted. The Summerford ranch had two stables: A big one at the back where the _real_ work-horses were kept, the ones that the ranch-hands and volunteers kept trained and lean for herding the cattle and travelling. This smaller one at the front of the house they kept for the older animals, because Anna would never, ever, in a million years let her father send off any of _her_ horses to be put down. In the summer the children of the workers were allowed to come play there while their parents were working and feed them, and the horses too old to work got a couple of summers being safe and fat and happy before they departed.

The bag emptied about as fast as she had filled it, with Anna stuck between three horses that were nuzzling at her hair and clothes looking for more food. "How do you mean?" she asked, wiping table-scraps from her fingers and letting the horses lick them clean. Her dad cringed at those huge teeth, but he had to admit Anna had a way with the animals.

"Listen darling, when you're finished with the beasts we do need to talk about this."

"I know, I just wanted to unwind for a little bit," Anna admitted. She brushed her hands free of horse-slobber. "Daddy, I know I landed this on you a little soon, but I was hoping if we got those caterers from Austin for the town and called up your old drinking buddies who actually have important jobs, we could make it seem enough important people were here that a party would be-"

"Actually I was thinking about something smaller," Lawrence Summerford said.

Abruptly Anna's conversation-train derailed and slammed into a wall. Her dad? Something smaller? What?

Her father went on. "We were talking and ultimately your mother and I think a huge star-studded party isn't exactly… _appropriate_."

"Appropriate for an actual, for-real queen?"

"Mmmhmm."

"The kind you'd have killed to entertain way back when?"

"Mmmhmm."

"Daddy, you're a stinking liar," Anna said, and punched him lightly on the arm.

"Oh don't get me wrong," Lawrence said, rubbing a hand down the nose of a still-hungry horse, which turned away from him the instant it realised there would be no more apples. "I'd love to. But the way I hear it, parties are all our particular guest has been to recently." Well, God knows that was true. "Something smaller and more intimate might be more appreciated," he said. "Which might mean a repeat performance," he went on with a smirk, still a politician beneath the veneer of retirement.

Anna felt a small blush materialise down her neck at the word _intimate,_ and ignored it. "That…that actually sounds good." Just the few of them. A break from having to keep up appearances. Not that she would slob out or anything, god no. She wondered if Elsa was bringing any formal wear.

"Well, we agreed. It'll be just the family and…"

Oh, god, she had just remembered. "And the senator."

"Yes, well," Lawrence said, and Anna heard the very noticeable change in his demeanour. "Unlike our other guest the good Virginian won't be staying on the ranch. His man made _that_ pretty dang clear. No, his eminence the senator is going to be staying at the Austin Sheraton."

"Mom couldn't have taken that well." Bethany Summerford prided herself in the ancient art of southern hospitality, and being refused the chance to demonstrate it wouldn't have sat well with her. Especially not from another southerner. _Wait._ "Wait, you said 'unlike'." She blinked, and processed the thought for another second. "Is Elsa staying _here?_ On the _ranch?"_

Her father looked at her like she had just spouted words at him in Esperanto. "Of course."

"The Queen can't stay here," Anna babbled.

Her father looked at her, faux-puzzled. "Sure she can. We have the guest-house all cleaned regularly, and they say it's fine. She'll love the place, same as you did when you had those sleepovers with your friends."

She tamped down the panic growing in her heart before it could overwhelm her. If he was talking about _the_ guest house he was right. Their great-grandfather had built it for his mistress (long story, seldom-told) and he had _really_ liked his mistress. It was a single story, richly decorated and could fit a family of six comfortably, or a single woman extravagantly (thanks, great-granddad). It was fine, it was fine. But wait. "Who's 'they'?" she asked.

Her father smiled like he had been waiting for her to realise it was her birthday, and she hadn't opened her presents yet. "You aren't the first of your little conspirators to arrive, darling."

* * *

"Well well, someone's been busy."

The tall blonde turned at the sound of Anna's voice, lowering the map of the ranch he was holding. "Congresswoman Summerford," he said with a smile.

"Agent Bjorgman," Anna replied with a smile of her own. "How's things, Kristoff?"

"Busy," he replied. "Your fault."

"Sorry."

"No don't be, your family's been great to us."

"Us?" she asked, again. Yeesh, that was becoming a habit.

"Hello, congresswoman."

Anna turned to see a dark-haired beauty sitting – no, _lounging –_ in the upholstery of the living room's big chair. For a second her brain fought to make the connection between the gorgeous sleek creature she had met back in Washington, and the woman in the flannel jacket, white shirt and jeans that lay draped over the guest-house furniture now. "Miss Voll!"

"Call me Eva, please," the queen's press secretary said, unfolding herself from the chair as she stood to shake Anna's hand. "This seems like a surprise?"

"Da- my father likes his little tricks. I'm sorry I wasn't there to greet you. You've been looking over the place? How is it?" she asked, the final question coming out maybe a little faster than she had wanted. The question was suddenly very, very important to her. "We can change stuff around if you need to."

Kristoff looked out the window. "No, it's great, really. My only concern was security but you can't see this place from any roads and the fields aren't long enough to hide anyone approaching."

"Cows make sure of that," Anna blurted out, and wasn't sure why.

"Well, comfort was _my_ concern," Evangeline, Eva, said. "And there are…" she waved her hands around the living room. Like the mansion, the place was mostly wood, decorated in warm colours. Anna noticed with a cringe that most of the paintings seemed to be of serious-looking men standing next to massive cows, and remembered that they used this place as a dumping-ground for art they didn't like but couldn't toss out. Apart from that it had every convenience you wanted in a modern house. Several more, probably. "…almost no problems at all, congresswoman," the woman finished with a flourish.

"Call me Anna. Almost?"

Eva shrugged. "The fridge needs stocking."

"We'll get it done," Anna replied, instantly.

"You all okay in there?" Lawrence said, walking into the living room.

"Everything's great mister Summerford," Kristoff said, and Anna finally noticed that he wasn't actually in a black suit anymore. Like Eva he had dressed down, like her in flannel and jeans. Huh, maybe it was a couple's thing. Even though they had met more than a handful of times she realised she didn't know anything about these people she was putting up for a weekend. She'd known more about Alice after their first conversation. _Have to fix that._

"This is an amazing place you have here though," Eva said, pushing back a curtain and staring out the window.

"Five hundred acres, one of the biggest ranches still privately-owned," her father said proudly.

"I can't wrap my head around that. Where I grew up you couldn't walk more than a few hundred meters before hitting a mountain or a valley. Certainly neither of them had herds like this. A handful of goats, maybe," Eva said softly.

"Totally self-sufficient. You could feed an army here," he said proudly. Hold one off as well, Anna knew. From outside all you saw was the waving fields and the stray cattle grazing, but the house and the barns all had excellent fencing. Summerfords hadn't gotten this far by being fools. They had no problem sharing what they had, but always they kept it safe.

"It's an amazing place mister Summerford," Kristoff said, holding up the map and handing it to him.

"Call me Lawrence," her father said, totally charmed by these two strange Europeans in the matching suits. Anna could have laughed, except then they'd have asked why she was laughing, and she'd have laughed harder. Then, she was abruptly brought back to earth.

"When's her majesty coming?"

"Later this afternoon, an hour so before sundown," Kristoff said, checking his watch.

"Well, you three just call me if you need anything," he said, and turned to leave. A second later they heard the engine of the small jeep that had brought Anna and her father here, parked next to Kristoff's rental.

"Seriously Anna, this place removes a whole headache for me and the rest of the guys, thanks so much."

"Well I can't really take credit for building this place but you're welcome," she said, and smiled. "Are you sure there's nothing else I can do besides stock the place?" She'd get her mother to bake a pie for it. She'd fill the fridge up herself.

Kristoff looked over at Eva, who was still staring out the window. She turned and exchanged a look with him. Then she smiled. "I was told there were horses?"

* * *

"Doesn't every little girl?"

Anna knew she hadn't really needed to ask, by the way the older black-haired woman gently stroked the neck of the horse in the stall.

They were in the stables, the _real_ stables. The horses kept here were healthy, in their prime, bred to work. The one Eva had her hands on shuffled around a little but otherwise stood stock-still and the let the unfamiliar human run a hand down its side. Around them serious-looking men with serious expressions passed them with small nods and little else as they went about doing the work involved keeping a couple of hundred cows fed, watered, milked and healthy.

"Kristoff's right, in Arendelle we don't have anything like this at all."

"The mountains?"

"The mountains," Eva agreed with a nod, in that voice she had that made Anna's bones tingle. God knew what it did to men. "No room for beasts like these there. We had mountain-goats for meat and milk but if you tried to ride one of _those_ you'd be kicked off and down a gorge."

"What's it like?" Anna asked, hungry for any kind of knowledge about Elsa's kingdom.

Eva let go of the horse and together they walked back to the entrance of the massive barn-stroke-stable, stopping occasionally to let a worker pass. "Cold," Eva responded. "Small, too. Like Norway, but smaller."

"I've never been to Europe," Anna had to admit, and felt like a small-town girl facing off against a well-travelled socialite.

"You have a very important job, and America has as many cultures and climates as Europe does," Eva said, and Anna wondered if she had felt Anna's embarrassment and tried to soothe her. "A small country isn't so bad though. It's more…cosy."

The sunlight streamed down onto their faces as they exited. Winter wouldn't touch Texas for a few more weeks yet. "Everyone knows everyone?" Anna asked.

"No, but everyone knows every _where._ You know when you meet someone they grew up more or less like you, they…knew the same kind of things you did." Eva said. "There's a community in that, like a town but larger. We look out for each other, when the _real_ cold descends."

"That must be nice," Anna said, thinking of the schools with rusting paint and textbooks a decade old that were never replaced because the district they were in didn't have enough votes, or the wrong kind of votes. "It must make ruling it easy."

"Compared to America?" Eva asked. Anna nodded. "I'd imagine. But the pressure is greater."

The two women leaned up against a fence that linked the working area with its cars and machine to one of the grazing fields. The cattle would be munching for a few hours more and the area near the fence thronged with brown-skinned animals. A couple came closer to the fence, but quickly wandered back to the grass when they realised the two shapes weren't food. "How so?" she asked, leaning against the wooden poles.

"There's no-one but her," Eva said, staring out at the cattle, and Anna didn't need her to explain any further. "In the end every decision is hers. All the credit and all the blame."

"You help though."

"Of course."

"You and Kristoff?"

Eva looked askance at Anna. "Kristoff and I?"

Anna felt that damn blush coming back again as she realised she may not have been as insightful as she thought she was. "I thought with the matching outfits and everything. I'msorryIjustassumed-"

Eva laughed and it was magical. "No. Kristoff is a good man but just a colleague. He would laugh at the idea."

"He wouldn't. You're very beautiful," Anna said.

Eva smiled at her and pushed a lock of raven hair out of her eyes. "Thank you Anna. If we were in any other situation I might respond, but…"

"Respond to what?" Anna asked, curious as the woman smiled and looked away from her.

Eva blinked, and the smile and confidence flickered for the first time since they had met in the flesh. "To your…oh. I'm sorry, I thought you were…"

"Were what? Oh, _Oh!"_ She'd made a fool of herself again. "No, I didn't mean anything by it, I was just saying! I mean I _meant_ it, because you _are,_ but…" She felt the blush creeping up and silently commanded it to stay below her neckline.

"Is it going to be a problem?" Eva asked.

Anna shook her hands in front of her like she was waving off an attack. The only thing she was trying to ward off was her own stupidity. "No, no, of course not!"

"I only ask because I have the impression a lot of people in this part of the country are-"

"Not in my home," Anna said firmly. "And the rest of the state doesn't matter." Of course she knew the stereotypes people had about her home. So sad that apparently it extended over the ocean to countries halfway across the world. One day she'd help that change, but probably not when she was a congresswoman still on the younger side of thirty. The ideas she had jotted down in a notebook locked in her desk drawers would remain there for a little while longer.

Eva's smile came back. "Thank you Anna," she said. A muffled beeping came from her waist, and she reached in to reveal a small mobile that she started speaking rapid Norwegian - or at least Anna assumed that was what it was - into. After a few seconds of rapid-fire talking with whoever was on the other end, Eva put it away and looked at Anna. The words she spoke made a thrill shoot through her.

"She's here."

* * *

Her father tugged at his suit as they stood at the doorway, with the farm-hands that weren't currently working and the staff that weren't inside preparing stood around them. To Anna it felt like school picture-day, or back in Washington waiting for a committee head to arrive so they could all get back to work. Which it kind of was.

"Tie," she hissed toward her father, who cursed and quickly yanked the offending article of clothing up around his neck. He had always hated them, and wore them only when totally necessary. The arrival of a foreign queen _definitely_ counted as one of those times. Anna fidgeted and checked her shirt for the tenth time as beside them the photographer practically hopped from one foot to another snapping pictures of them with his heavy-duty camera. She hadn't wanted him there but the editor from the _Statesman_ had convinced her that giving them a few pictures would be a small price to pay for being left alone for the weekend and not, as he put it, "forcing them to take more intrusive measures to gather news of significant importance to the state". The asshole. Hopefully the sun would set fast enough that his gear wouldn't catch the sweat she imagined was dripping down her neck in a cascade. She was wearing a light cream skirt that almost reached her ankles with a matching off-white shirt, with cream shoes and a few necklaces, and she hoped it wasn't _too_ informal.

Oh, god, she felt sick. She didn't know how she was going to react, not after how their last meeting had ended. Suddenly the light peck which she had laughed off as just a confusion between cultures rose up in her mind and demanded attention. The closer the long black car got to the mansion the more nervous she felt. How was Elsa going to greet her?. Maybe her immense screw-up had turned this into a duty Elsa couldn't get out of and they'd spend the entire weekend being polite and distant to each other. Maybe she wouldn't even stay the weekend. God, the shame of it. _This was a horrible mistake._

Kristoff detached himself from the deepening shadows where he and Eva had been standing apart from the ranch staff, and stepped forward to open the door of the car as it came to a halt. At first Anna thought there was a second door behind it, but then the looming bulk of Kristoff's boss, Marshall-something, stepped out, and Anna saw past him to the person inside.

Her father leaned down towards her ears and whispered; "Snap." She didn't reach back up and tear his lips off only because Elsa was looking towards her, and she was entranced and panicking all at once. They were off-colour mirrors of each other. Elsa was wearing a skirt-and-shirt as well, only hers was shaded light blue. The hair was still in that long, impossible braid, entwined with something that could have gold ribbon or – and Anna wouldn't have been surprised – gold filigree. The jewellery around her neck looked like sapphires and diamonds. Anna looked closely and her heart almost stopped when she spotted the pendant, _her_ pendant, dangling there as well.

That was when Anna knew things were going to be alright.

"That's my cue." Her father stepped forward with a thousand-watt smile and held his hands out. "Your majesty, welcome. It's an honour."

And did Anna imagine it but did it take a second before Elsa stopped looking at her, and instead switched her gaze to her father? "Mister Summerford, I've heard so much about you." Elsa looked past him. "About all of you. It's a pleasure to be in Texas," she said as the photographer snapped away.

"A pleasure to host you ma'am." Senator Daniel Sicklemore stepped forward with a smile to light the heavens and reached out a beefy hand. As Elsa smiled back politely and reached out her own he grasped it and held it for a good few seconds. Making damn sure, Anna noticed, that he gave the press-man a few good angles for the paper. Finally after what had to feel like an uncomfortable amount of time he let go. _Asshole._ She'd apologise to Elsa later. She stepped forward as fast as she could without looking worried.

"Your majesty." She gave a small bow and looked back up to see Elsa staring down at her. She was prepared this time though, and her heart merely skipped a beat rather than stopping entirely. "Hello again."

"Anna," Elsa said with a _real_ smile. Bang, another skip.

"Everything's ready if you'd like to come in?" she gestured behind her, to where the lights of the house projected a warm golden glow against the early-evening sun.

Elsa nodded, and looked sideways to where Sicklemore was hovering like a fat, sweaty moon. _He_ wasn't handling the heat well at all. When she spoke Anna barely recognised Elsa's voice. It sounded fake, rehearsed, like she was putting on a play. "Senator, I know you've come a long way, but I'm _quite_ exhausted by the schedule for this week and I was so looking forward to a relaxing night. I know this may be a disappointment but would you mind _terribly_ if we postponed any conversation until, say, the morning after tomorrow?" She beamed at him, but the smile was like those of a porcelain doll, all frozen and unreal.

He didn't notice though. Anna could practically see the man doing calculations in his head. He might not have liked the number he came up with, but one day with the queen was still one day more than his competitors were getting. He smiled and wiped his forehead again. Anna hoped he was taking that damp handkerchief with him. "Of course your majesty, not a problem at all." He glanced at Anna. "Miss Summerford will be a most entertaining host 'till we meet. On Sunday, ma'am." Without another word he strode back to the limo – of course – he had taken to the ranch, and climbed in and sped off without so much as glancing back.

"I think I annoyed him," Elsa said, her voice back to normal as the two women watched the car travel the paved drive that led to the ranch gates, a half-mile up the road. _Good riddance._

"He wanted your attention for the whole weekend, not just the last day of it," Anna said.

"Well, he can't have it," Elsa said with a force that sent a thrill down Anna's spine. _She came here to see me! Me, me, me!_ Elsa smiled, and looked at Anna's father. "I've never been to a ranch before sir, and now that mister Sicklemore has left I feel more awake, suddenly. Is there a tour?"

"Call me Lawrence," her father replied, and beamed. "I-"

"I'll do it," Anna said quickly. "I mean…" she ignored the strange glance her father shot her. "I can escort her." She glanced at Kristoff, standing just behind Elsa. "That's fine, right?"

"I hope it'll be as good as the one you gave to me in Washington," Elsa said, and smiled as those eyes bored through Anna's eyes and into her soul.

"How about that drink?" Lawrence asked, recovering as best he could.

"I'd love one," Elsa said, and reached out a hand. Before Anna could properly react Elsa had roped her arm through Anna's as they both turned to go into the mansion. "Lead on." Anna didn't know if it was a scent or just some sort of natural aura, but that close she was…intoxicating.

_Oh, god._

* * *

"I wasn't expecting everything to be so…" Elsa trailed off, waving a hand around like the word she wanted was somewhere in the air and she could grab onto it.

"Green?" Anna asked with a smile.

"Am I showing my ignorance?" Elsa asked with a smile.

It was unbelievable. She didn't believe it. There was just something so utterly unreal and dreamlike about where Anna found herself. They sat on the back porch of the mansion, which in a smaller house would have easily fit an entire five-man band. She looked and tried to avoid looking as if she was staring as Elsa sat in one of the loungers, one leg crossed over the other as her dress hung down the chair, and a glass of her mother's sangria in her hand. On the table beside them was a pitcher filled with more, and a plate stuffed with sandwiches. If it wasn't for the tiara that adorned her head and the presence of Kristoff and the other huge bodyguard standing out of the way but still very much there on the porch with them, they could have been entertaining a family friend.

"Whenever my father showed us old cowboy movies this wasn't what was in them," Elsa admitted. The mansion stood on a slight rise and below them they could look and see for miles, past the small garden with the unkempt bayou tree, out across the fields filled with corn and cattle. The second that they had walked through the large double-doors that led to the porch the young queen hadn't stopped looking out at the ranch.

"Some places down further south are like that. But we've always kept this place a garden," Anna said, catching a good-natured scuff on the arm from her dad seated one chair over.

"Who's this 'we'," her father asked jokingly. "As I recall a certain someone headed north the second they were old enough to run for office."

"It's beautiful," Elsa said, seemingly not hearing the familial joke, still looking out over the ranch.

Anna watched as she took another sip, using her delicate hands to raise the glass to her lips. There was no mark there, no rings. Why did that matter? She looked away and took a heavier gulp of her own glass than she had meant to. _That_ was another thing she had missed in DC. Politicians drank wine by the gallon, she had discovered, probably because most of it was so awful. She tuned out as her father proudly ran through a list of the ranch's attributes. Heavens knows she knew the list off by heart.

"…and the stables of course."

"Stables?" Elsa asked, jerking Anna out of her disinterest and her father out of his spiel.

"Of course!" Lawrence said happily, already onto his second glass of sangria. Hopefully mom took the pitcher away before he could grab a third glass, he wasn't a young man anymore. "You need horses if you have cows. Jeeps and such are fine of course if all you want to do is get from one place to another but for delicate work you need a living animal."

"I've seen them, they're magnificent," Eva asked, sitting on a chair of her own just outside the circle of Anna and her family and the queen. Compared to the cat-like lounge she had displayed back at the guest-house, here she sat almost ramrod-straight.

"You have an interest in horses? Most young women do I've found, it's been a great help grabbing their interest through the years," her father, and winked entirely unsubtly at his wife.

Elsa didn't seem to have noticed though. "I never really thought of it," she said wistfully. "I've seen movies and so on but all we ever had back in the kingdom was goats and the occasional mountain bear."

"We could show you," Anna said, before she could stop herself. "I mean that's what they're there for. Apart from herding, I mean." Her heart had grabbed her brain and galloped away with it and suddenly she couldn't stop speaking. "There's some beautiful scenery down in the rest of the farm. I mean ranch." She shut her mouth before it could motor away from her.

She held her breath, and hoped, as Elsa turned to look at her, her lips slightly parted in surprise and that flawless skin coloured with a faint blush from the sangria, because what else could it be from? I mean, really? "I…"

"Tonight?" Anna heard Eva ask from her seat in surprise. "I don't know if we can-"

And her father, that beautiful old man, spoke up from his chair and cheerful haze. "I don't see why not, you get some beautiful sunsets down by the river. End your first day with something really special. One of the prettiest things on this whole place, besides my daughter here that is."

Elsa nodded, and Anna didn't know which part of the statement the queen was agreeing with. She wanted it to be _all_ of it. "I'd be happy to show you the way," she said, trying to focus her will like a superpower onto the other woman. "It's really something." She swung for the fences. "At least you'll be able to take something away with you after Senator Sicklemore visits."

* * *

"Like this?"

Anna nodded, and was glad that Kristoff and Marshall – see, she finally remembered – were looking outwards, and that Elsa was so focussed on climbing onto the stallion's back, because she couldn't stop watching. "Now just haul yourself up," Anna said, and tried not to watch too hard as Elsa swung her leg up and over the animal in a single second, told herself she was only watching Elsa's legs so closely to see if she was about to slip and fall.

Elsa turned, and she could see the faint blush of sweat there and the look of triumph on her face. She looked radiant. "You look like a natural," Anna said. She really did. Dressed in some clothes borrowed from a workhand with roughly the same sizes – there wasn't a single chance she was getting a leg over anything in the dress – Elsa looked like she belonged on a ranch. The fabulous light-blue had been replaced with a long-sleeved green shirt and the skirt had been replaced with a hardy old pair of breeches. For her part Anna had changed into her old riding gear - barely. All that terrible Washington food had taken it's toll and the leather breeches had been just a little tighter than usual.

Elsa's illusion of beginner's luck was ruined a second later as the brown breast whinnied gently and trotted a few inches forward, and Elsa had to grab the horse by the neck-hairs to stop from falling. She gave a little panicked squeak as she grasped that did strange things in Anna's chest, and she laughed before she could stop herself.

"Fine, show me how a Texan does it then," Elsa said, eyebrows furrowed in a small frown that looked adorable more than angry.

"Challenge accepted, your majesty." Anna whistled, and as if on command the other unlocked stall opened and by years of training the horse trotted towards her, waiting patiently for its rider. Anna made sure she kept eye contact with Elsa, not breaking it for a moment as she gripped the saddle and swung herself up and over in a single smooth motion. To rub it in she kicked gently and sent the horse a few paces ahead, turning back to see the reaction and catching Elsa staring in what she hoped was amazement.

"I'd clap but I'm afraid I'd fall," Elsa replied, holding with both hands to the front of the saddle.

"It's a gentle one," Anna said. She had made damn sure of it. The mare was old, almost ready for her retirement in the front stables, and good-natured and used to being ridden by strangers.

Elsa looked down at the leather straps in her hands. "How do I…?"

Anna smiled. "How many cowboy movies did your father show you?" she asked, keeping her eyes on Elsa.

"Enough to know I didn't like them much," the queen admitted. "But I do remember you say 'whoa' to do something."

Anna smiled. "That's for stopping. But the rest isn't so hard, not with these horses." She tugged the reins and trotted her horse out of the barn, and turned back. "Try squeezing gently on it's flank with both calves."

"Won't that hurt her?"

 _You wonderful person._ "No, they're tough."

Anna watched as Elsa did so and the old mare gently began to walk forward. She watched for that little look of thrill that everyone got the first time they got up in the saddle. There was a special joy in sitting up on a real saddle on a real horse, and feeling in total command of the huge beast underneath you.

"Whoaaa," Elsa said, and her horse came to a halt instantly. She beamed.

"Your majesty…" Kristoff said from below them both.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Elsa said, already it seemed a little out of breath, not looking at her bodyguard but at the ranch that spread out before them, and the seemingly endless countryside spread out before her. "How far to this river?" she sked.

"Congresswoman, your majesty, if you'll wait while we get a car to-" Marshall started, but Elsa cut him off.

"No, I'm certain I'm fine. Anna knows the land, I'm sure she can guide me back. We'll be perfectly safe. After all, nobody else knows we're here. Where to?" she asked, looking directly into Anna's eyes. On top of the horse, dressed in rider's gear and with that slight flush in her cheeks, she was the most beautiful thing Anna had ever seen.

That was when Anna finally knew she _had_ to do something, before she drove herself mad.

Something incredibly stupid.

But she had to know.

* * *

She wasn't a natural, but she was a lot better than some adults Anna had known, people who couldn't sit a horse if the horse had been lowered into a pit in the ground and tranquillized. After a few minutes of jerky bouncing Elsa managed to synchronise herself with the mare, and they had trotted at a brisk but steady pace away from the work-stables, down onto the paths between the fields that led into the southern part of the ranch. Anna could still feel Marshall glaring daggers at her back as they had left his sight. She imagined that was the way her old boyfriends had felt picking her up, when her father had all but threatened them with death if they didn't bring her home on time. Oh god, that wasn't a comparison she wanted to make right now.

She was blushing and she couldn't stop. But she wasn't going to chicken out.

She still had to do it.

"Elsa I-"

"Anna I…" Both of them stopped at once. "You first," Elsa said.

"It's not that important," Anna said, pretending to be very concerned about leading her horse down the middle of the gravel pathway. This far away from the ranch there was nothing but fields to either side of them, and at this time of year nothing much growing. The workers had already began to pack up for the night and weekend, and Anna doubted there was anyone within a good quarter-mile. She caught a flash of red in her peripheral vision and looked up as the fences took ninety-degree turns and swept away from them both as they stood side by side on the grassy and untamed field that served as the southern border for the ranch.

The river swept by below them and it was everything Anna had hoped it would be. Sometimes in the hot summers the entire thing grew stagnant and dank as the rains slowed and the upstream banks' mud slipped into the water. Today though it flowed smoothly, with that gorgeous quiet sound that people described as 'babbling' but Anna had never really been able to put a word to. The sun was setting from their right, casting the sky and the water below them with beautiful oranges and reds. The stones on the small rocky shore shone, and the still-green grasses waved in the evening breeze. If she had made a wish on a star it couldn't have looked any more perfect.

Anna's horse jinked under her, moving closer to the other horse for warmth, bringing the two women closer together. _It's like a dream,_ she thought. "What were you going to say?" she asked.

"These few days have been a dream," Elsa said in almost a whisper as she looked out over the river. "Ever since I arrived in America and met you at that party, it feels like you've been a rock for me." Elsa took a breath. "It felt like it was keeping me going sometimes, waiting for moments like this where I could meet you again."

And the bottom dropped out of Anna's chest, just like that. Gone.

"Now what were _you_ going to say?" Elsa asked, apparently entirely unaware she had just taken hold of Anna and squeezed.

"I wanted to apologise," Anna said as the brakes came off. She couldn't stand not knowing, she _needed_ to clear it up.

Elsa looked away from the river that looked like it was on fire and over at Anna who was suddenly incredibly, intensely _there_ beside her. "Apologise for what?" the queen asked.

Anna gulped down air, because she'd be damned if she was going to stutter halfway through this. "For kissing you goodbye outside the memorial, back in Washington. It was just an accident."

Elsa reached across to put a hand on Anna's shoulder, the horse underneath her feeling her weight shift and canting sideways as its rider ordered, and now they were close enough that their legs were almost touching. "Anna, you don't have to apologise for that."

The rush of relief Anna felt was almost a physical thing. "I felt so stupid." She laughed, disturbing her horse. "I just wanted you to know _."_ She opened her mouth again but no words came out. "I…" she managed.

Elsa leaned over, closer to Anna. Far too close. When she talked it was stop-start, as if the same semi-muteness that had suddenly seized Anna was contagious, and she'd caught it. But that was impossible. People like Elsa didn't get embarrassingly tongue-tied. They were barely an inch apart now. Elsa's eyes filled Anna's world.

"I'm just so glad we could come here," Elsa whispered. She licked her lips and when next she spoke every word seemed to make the world around them go silent. "I couldn't stop thinking about you."

And suddenly it was the easiest and quickest thing in the world for Anna to lean forward that last half-inch. To close her eyes and put her lips gently against Elsa's.

_Is this real?_

She tasted…creamy. Like vanilla, or like how she imagined saffron tasted. Her mouth opened slightly and Anna felt Elsa's breath press against her lips and then into and down her throat. She twisted her head slightly as their noses touched, but it wasn't good enough. She wanted to press further somehow. She wanted more. She licked her lips to wet them and felt the sensation of someone else's flesh against her tongue, and in that second she wanted to press it further. She wanted to…she…wait. _WAIT!_

She wrenched herself backwards so fast the horse underneath her whinnied in panic and trotted backwards, and suddenly her brain was back in full control and was screaming at her and holding up her memory of the past few seconds, playing it back at her in full sensory range.

" _I'M SO SORRY!"_ she shouted in panic as Elsa looked at her with wide eyes. Terrified eyes. _Oh my god. Oh my god. What have I done!?_

"Anna, please, wait!" Elsa shouted, but Anna could see the fear there in those blue orbs.

The horse underneath her, hearing the fear in it's masters voice, panicked, and it took all of Anna's concentration to avoid being thrown to the ground. Her mind beat on the inside of her skull screaming _idiot, idiot, idiot_ like a chant _._ She had fucked up. Immeasurably. Catastrophically. "Elsa I'm so sorry," Anna said as she brought the beast back under control. The sunset had done its job and was already being replaced with the greys of the evening. The queen's detail would expect them soon. Fine. She took a deep breath. She couldn't fix this. But she could mitigate the damage.

She wanted to cry.

"I'm so sorry, your majesty."

"Stop saying that, please," Elsa whispered, still with that look of hurt on her face. Anna had done that, to this perfect creature that had trusted her, and she had taken that trust and abused it. Abused _her._

"We should go back. I'm sor- If you want to leave I-"

"No!" Elsa almost shouted. "I want to- I mean I _don't_ want to-"

Anna wanted to look at Elsa but the shame kept her head turned away. If she could see herself she would be bright red she just knew, and she thanked god the encroaching darkness was hiding the wetness threatening to break out around her eyes. "We should go back," she said flatly.

"I…okay," Elsa said. Even now she sounded so kind, for a wretched woman that had taken advantage of that kindness no less. "Okay."

They turned their horses around and began the slow canter back to the stables. Once or twice from her peripheral vision Anna swore that Elsa looked towards her a couple of times, but she didn't look back.

They rode in silence, until the glittering stars above were drowned out by the light being spilled out into the heavens from the huge building ahead of them. From the stances of the three people waiting there, they were less than cheerful.

"Your majesty, congresswoman," Marshall said, his tone clearly wanting to say more but keeping his mouth shut out of diplomacy. That evening Anna would have taken the tongue-lashing and accepted it without complaint.

Elsa climbed down without help, Kristoff catching her as her boots hit the dirt and she stumbled. "Thank you for the ride Anna," she said.

Anna just nodded as she stabled her mare. She turned back to see Eva, the press secretary, staring at her, with an expression on her face that could have been puzzlement or worry. "Are you alright?" the dark-haired woman asked.

"Just tired," Anna responded, and realised as she said it that she really meant it.

Eva's gaze too said that she wanted to say more, but like Marshall she turned away, back to the queen. "Everything's ready at the guest-house ma'am, if we're still staying there."

Anna's breath hitched in her lungs at the words, and she only breathed again when Elsa said _I am._

* * *

She shut the door of her bedroom behind her and leaned against it, slid down to the floor until her knees were up to her chest and she had her head in her hands.

She had no idea what to do now. Or even what to think.

Anna had had boyfriends. She'd broken up with them eventually, or they had broken up with her. Her first crush hadn't liked her back. Her on-again-off-again squeeze through high-school had a wandering eye she had finally tired of. The next had needed a scholarship more than he had wanted her and they had parted on good terms. The boy she had gone to her senior prom with had simply not grown up and she had surpassed him emotionally and then professionally. Then her career. The election. Washington. After she had grown up she had simply never had the time. Sometimes she would meet men she liked and saw potential in, but she would always weigh them up against what she wanted for _her_ life, and found them wanting in some way. She had never been _desperate_ for company, but it was something she thought about sometimes on long nights. And of course her mother asked every time they talked.

In not a single one of those break-ups or decisions to forgo a relationship had she ever considered for a _moment_ that it was because she was searching for goods in the wrong half of the store.

"Anna? Are you alright?" a muffled voice came from the other side of the door. "You came back _very_ fast."

"Just really tired, mom," she said through the door, and god was that ever the truth. Not the whole truth, but she felt _exhausted._ She stood and almost ripped off her riding jacket, throwing it on the floor and letting it lay there.

She wondered what Elsa was doing, out there in the guest house. It was only a short drive away. If she squinted out of the window she could probably see the lights there. She- _No!_ She couldn't think like that. Well, no, that wasn't true. She wanted to think like that, she just couldn't _afford_ to. She had still guaranteed that Sicklemore could get his words in with the queen. Then she would leave, and most likely never come back.

But god, she didn't want it to _end_ like this.

She didn't want it to _end._

"Anna?"

"Yes mom?" Anna asked.

"If you have a minute before you turn in, there's someone here to see you." Her mother sounded…puzzled?

Anna turned and opened the door. Her mood wasn't lifted a single iota when she saw Eva standing there. Even at night the woman looked amazing. Was this the kind of thing Anna should have been searching for all along? "Yes, hello?" she said, and braced herself for the worst. _Yes, congresswoman, we're just here to say that unfortunately we won't be able to stay for-_

"Well, good evening to you too Anna," Eva said. The older woman stared at Anna for a second, and then a lop-sided grin broke out on her face. "It seems like the ride took quite a bit out of you, you look like a ghost."

She couldn't muster the energy to smile back. "It did, I'm sorry. Is everything alright? Is there anything we can do for you?" God, but she just wanted to collapse into-

"Yes. Can you spare a half-hour?"

"When?" she asked. " Wait, right now?"

"Right now," Eva said with a nod.

Anna reached down for her jacket and put it on as they descended the stairs that led to the main foyer. _Well, maybe she just wants to say she's leaving personally. If she…hold on._ She stopped as she spotted someone in the hall. _"Marshall?"_

And yes, there he was. The main agent of the queen's protective detail stood in the lobby, without his queen. The huge man turned and looked up at her like she was an irritant who had stepped in his way while walking, which for him was as a frown that would have given a professional boxer pause. That was nothing though compared to the _glare_ he shot at Eva. Professional boxers would have _ran._

"I know you're tired, thanks so much," Eva said, pointedly _not_ looking at the hulking security man as they passed him and left through the front door.

"What's going on?" Anna asked in confusion born of tiredness glancing back to see Marshall standing by the mansion's doors, not following them. Wasn't it illegal or something for the Secret Service to just wander away from their bosses?

"Better if she explains it herself," Eva said, as they walked towards the small jeep. She gestured at the driver's seat. "Do you mind?"

"Sure." _Anything to distract me,_ Anna thought as she climbed in and started the engine up. Technology was so much easier to handle than people. Maybe if they'd been in separate cars instead of horses she wouldn't have gotten close enough to do something so stupid. She pulled out violently enough to make Eva grab the edge of the door frame and look at her in surprise. "Sorry." They passed the rest of the trip in silence, as the mansion receded behind her and the smaller lights ahead of them grew bigger little by little as they approached the guest-house, night now wrapped entirely around the ranch.

"Are you alright, Anna?" Eva asked from the seat beside her. Anna had used the excuse of having to drive to keep quiet and her eyes away from the other woman but really she could have driven this route with her eyes closed.

"I'm fine, just tired," she replied.

"This shouldn't take long," came the reply as Anna rolled the jeep to a gentle stop. She saw a black shadow detach itself from the wall and transform itself into Kristoff Bjorgman.

"Hey Anna. You look like I feel."

Anna still had the enthusiasm for a small smirk. "Then I'll send flowers to your parents after the funeral." Her eyes glanced sideways to the door. "So what's…I mean…"

Kristoff shrugged. "She just wanted to talk, she said something had been bothering her since Washington and she wanted to get it off her chest before it could ruin the weekend.

 _It's already ruined,_ Anna thought automatically, but suddenly there was a small glint of hope in the blackness of her soul. Forgiveness, so soon? "Is it okay if I…?"

Kristoff gestured. "Go right in?"

Eva moved past Anna to stand next to Kristoff. "Errr…"

"Just you."

* * *

She stepped over the threshold and almost jumped out of her skin as the door latched behind her. _Lock it down and get this over with._

"Hello?" she asked. The response came a second later as she heard Elsa speak. But it didn't _sound_ like Elsa. It didn't sound like the warm and confident royal that Anna had liked so much from the first time they had met. It sounded like a scared teenager hearing an unfamiliar stranger in her house.

"Through here," the voice said.

Elsa turned as Anna walked into the room and she stopped dead just over the threshold. Any confusion about her situation was blown out of her head instantly the second Elsa's eyes met her own. She had changed back into the off-white skirt-and-shirt combination she had arrived at the ranch in and it swirled around her as she looked into Anna's eyes. The warm light gave her platinum hair an almost golden glow that made her braid look like a glittering waterfall down her back. She was truly beautiful.

"Elsa I-"

"Please just let me talk," the queen said, so fast Anna barely heard _pleasjusletmetalk,_ as she stepped forward to meet Anna in the middle of the room. It took all of Anna's willpower not to flinch backwards as Elsa came close. Too close. As close as they had been when Anna had kissed her.

"Elsa I-" Anna tried again, but was overrun by the words that came from the queen like a dam had burst.

"What you said made me feel happier than I've felt in a very long time," Elsa said, leaning forwards the same way Anna had back by the river, and this time she really did flinch.

"I don't understand," Anna said, her mind only capable of thinking; _again._ Again only a breath apart. Again Anna could feel Elsa's everything near her. The cobalt-blue eyes that she felt like she could fall into and be swallowed up by. The flawless porcelain skin that Anna wanted to reach up and brush a hand down. The slight breath that tickled at her senses like a maddening caress.

"Did you mean it?" Elsa asked, her hands clasped at her chest. Anna could see the gloves moving as Elsa rubbed her hands together. Elsa nervous? Impossible.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you," Anna said, and she didn't know if she was repeating herself or asking if that was what Elsa was referring to. But she _meant_ it. God, did she mean it.

The words seemed to have an almost physical effect on Elsa. She swallowed and Anna saw every detail of the motion. The way her lips parted slightly, the way her throat moved, the way the light shifted against her skin. "I wasn't upset," the queen whispered.

And this time it was Elsa who leaned forward that final half-inch, and placed her lips against Anna's **.**


	8. Chapter 8

_She had never been able to sleep on airplanes. Something to do with there being nothing solid under her, maybe. Oh she could tell herself that the fuselage was solid enough, but then she'd lay there in the private sleeping quarters for hours, staring at the white fuselage ceiling. So she would chug bitter coffee that she hated to stay awake, and look over the remains of the day. Even in Arendelle's national aircraft, a plane literally_ designed _to move heads of state from one country to another in complete and total safety, she couldn't sleep. So instead here they all sat, in a compartment which, if not for the sound of engines all around them and the slight curve to the walls, could be easily mistaken for a very comfortable dining room. White leather sofas surrounded a polished oak table on three sides, with a huge television screen mounted on the wall of the fourth._

" _How does everything look?" she asked Gerda, sat next to Kristoff to Elsa's left. Her chief of staff had barely said a word since they had taken off, engrossed in the papers in front of her._

_The old woman looked up at her queen over her spectacles. "It's certainly not fair, but I think we can hammer them down to something reasonable," Gerda said, looking over the thin sheaf of papers. As good as his word, the President of the United States had delivered them to Elsa's chief of staff before the reception had even ended. She had asked Gerda to have her opinions ready for when they hit the ground back in Arendelle, and her essential second-in-command (there was no such thing as a Vice-Queen) had gone right to work, leaving Elsa to think. Think too much, maybe._

_The day after they had visited the White House, Elsa had spent touring the Smithsonian, something she had always wanted to do, back when she was still a student, when she finally made it to America. Now that she was here as a queen though the experience was…diluted…by the constant presence of flashing cameras. Elsa had loved history and architecture, and she had wanted to absorb as much as she could in the few short hours she would be visiting, but nothing inside those giant museums had gripped her. She had been given a personal tour by the curators and had been invited to look at the restoration work the public never got to see, but she had feigned interest at every step. She couldn't help but compare it to that wonderful – but short, so short – tour that Anna had given her the night before. So personal and full of history compared to the dry facts the old curators had thrown out at her. The one that had ended…_

_Ended in a way she_ definitely _wasn't going to think about. She could feel her palms itching. So think about something else._

_The cameras. The endless cameras she tried to ignore but whose flashes pierced through her eyelids practically every step she took. She had to admit she hadn't been prepared for it. The party at Weselton's ghastly mansion had been tolerable and she had expected more of the same in Washington DC. She hadn't expected every place they visited to have a wall of white light pressing against her. A couple of times as they had exited buildings she would have sworn if not for the American Secret Service forming a barrier they might have swarmed over her, drowning her in flashbulbs and shouted questions that sometimes barely made sense. Somet, sometimesimes they were hopelessly asinine and some that she could hardly believe they had the nerve to shout in public. Marshall had been a constant presence, so close he had practically been a second set of limbs, and for once she'd been truly grateful for his bulk between them and her. If…_

_This was no good. She had to distract herself. It was going to be a long plane-ride if she spent the entire time cooped up inside her own head. "Can we get any news up here?" she asked the people sitting across from her._

" _Of course ma'am." Eva unfolded herself from her chair and walked off to the front of the plane where her communications attachésattaches_ _had their little nest. A second later the television mounted on the wall blared to life. Elsa watched as the picture resolved into a man in a suit a size too small for him and a red face sat behind a news desk and spoke far too loudly_ _red-faced man in a suit a size too small for him, gesticulating wildly at his audience._

" _-have serious problems that need to be addressed in this country while the President spends the week wining and dining the equivalent of some rich kid who just inherited daddy's money. A hundred guests and twenty courses! You think that maybe that could have bought one of those schools that Texan congresswoman is always shouting for? The same one, you know, who's going to be 'entertaining' the queen for another weekend while up north actual people with actual jobs are just trying to make ends meet. If she cared about the poor in her state as much as she cared about the rich in these foreign countries then maybe she would-"_

" _Turn it off."_

_The angry voice ranting at her through the speakers cut off as if the man's head had been removed from his shoulders, something she would have dearly paid to see at this point. For a second the screen continued to show him, his mouth opening and closing like a fish, and then it mercifully cut to black. Elsa shifted in her seat. Somehow hearing the man talk like that about Anna made her uncomfortable._

" _You shouldn't listen to that kind of thing your majesty," Kristoff said, leaning back in his seat. He always looked a little more relaxed inside vehicles, when there was a good inch or two of hidden steel between the world and Elsa. No doubt if Marshall had his way she would go through life in some kind of ridiculous wheeled contraption like the Pope used. "People like that get paid by the word, they don't have to make a damn bit of sense."_

" _It's all politics," Eva said, coming back to her seat. "Establishing talking points like this early gives them time to hammer them in, make people believe them just because they've heard it so often. Doesn't matter if it's true or not."_

_Elsa remembered something Anna had said on their evening tour. "They're always running for re-election."_

_Eva shot her a look. Elsa had caught her doing that a lot lately. "Exactly ma'am."_

_Always someone after their head, gunning for their job. Anna had to be under enormous pressure. Well, she could sympathise. But to say things like that…Anna was the most gentle and understanding person Elsa knew. Surely when the time came people would see that? Being near to Anna was…it was soothing._

" _Are you alright ma'am?"_

" _Hmm?" Elsa looked across at Eva, who was staring at her again._

" _Is it too hot in the plane?" her press secretary asked, and Elsa realised she was blushing._

" _A little," she lied. "The entire week has been quite a ride. I'll be glad to get some air," she said, the truth now. In a few more hours they'd be on the ground, and at this ranch that Anna's family owned, and she could meet her again. Away from that circus they had left behind in Washington – well, away from most of it. She was sure she could handle a single congressman. Or was it senator? Either way soon she wouldn't be in the air anymore. She'd have peace and quiet and she could just talk with Anna. Like a normal human being._

_She'd feel better then._

* * *

It was some kind of spice, she was sure. Nothing harsh like nutmeg or harsh like thyme or rosemary. But something…unmistakable. Something like cinnamon, mixed with sugar. Sweet and woody and just a little hot.

Elsa closed her eyes and let Anna kiss her. The rational part of her brain, the one that she usually left in charge during the day, was screaming and hollering at her and jumping up and down that this was wrong. Insanely wrong. So ludicrously wrong. They were out in the open. They could be seen at any time. She was risking a scandal the size of a small island.

She ignored it all, Anna's breath gently tickling the inside of her throat, and driving the voice into submission. As Elsa opened her mouth to breathe before she choked she felt the lightest touch of the other woman's lips on her tongue. The sensation was…indescribable.

Then it was over, and Elsa was forced to watch as Anna reared away from her so fast she almost fell from her horse. It felt like something in Elsa's chest was torn out, like it was connected to her on a string. She saw the panic and fear and reached out a hand to say wait but the redheaded woman was too busy apologising to hear her.

Nothing Elsa said – or tried to say – could penetrate that panic.I t felt like it took minutes for Anna to calm down enough to hear what she was saying, and even then Anna didn't hear her.

"I'm so sorry, your majesty," Anna said.."

"Stop saying that, please," Elsashe whispered, trying desperately to make herself heard. Whenever Elsa had seen Anna, the other woman had always been smiling. She had always looked so cheerful that Elsa felt better just looking at her and seeing that happiness. Now the panic had taken that away and replaced it with something smaller, something almost hurt, and the change frightened Elsa deeply.

Anna jinked her horse around, looking back at the river, at the stable, anywhere but at her. "We should go back. I'm sor- If you want to leave I-"

"No!" Elsa almost shouted. She didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay, right here. "I want to-" _I want to talk. About you. About me. About that kiss._ "I mean I don't want to-"

"We should go back," Anna said, and Elsa couldn't see the expression on her face.

"I…okay," Elsa said, defeated. "Okay."

They rode back to the stables in silence.

* * *

She was vaguely aware of Marshall almost running up to the horses as they came back to the stables, but that was all. Even Kristoff was just a black-and-white blur somewhere in her peripheral vision, because all of Elsa's concentration that wasn't focussed on climbing down from the horse was spent trying to look at Anna. "Your majesty, congresswoman."

Elsa looked at the other woman and only saw a bunched-up tangle of red hair as the American woman stabled her horse. _Please look at me._ "Thank you for the ride Anna," she said, wanting to go up and just…just touch her on the shoulder, but too afraid to know what the consequences might be.

Eva was braver and for a moment Elsa cursed her beautiful, confident press secretary. "Are you alright?" she asked Anna.

"Just tired," came the reply.

_Liar! Look at me!_

But it was Eva that turned back to Elsa, not Anna. "Everything's ready at the guest-house ma'am, if we're still staying there." She added the last sentence hesitantly her eyes switching between Anna and Elsa, a slight frown on her face, like she had been expecting something.

Elsa nodded. "I am." She turned to Anna, still focussed on putting away the leather contraption and taking care of the horse. "Thank you for the ride," she said, willing the other woman to turn around and look at her, to acknowledge her, to give her something.

She didn't even know if Anna heard her.

* * *

Elsa looked without really seeing as they drove from the stables to the guest-house. Maybe she was being rude but suddenly she had no desire to go back to the large mansion, with its happy and welcoming family and warm fireplace. She didn't want to spend the last hour or so of the day trying to pretend that everything was alright. So she had asked Eva to go and make her excuses to the Summerfords while Marshall drove her the half-mile or so – it still shocked her a little how much space there was in this country – back to the guest-house. For once the absolute stoic silence of her bodyguard was welcome, because she had no desire to talk to anyone. Anyone except one person, who had made it absolutely clear they didn't want to talk to her.

Or was too afraid to try, and that was the issue really, wasn't it? Because Elsa knew what it was like to feel fear like that and every line, every stance, every awkward movement of Anna between the field and the stable screamed it. Elsa remembered a day years ago, standing at the door leading into a church, with a too-heavy crown on her head and a scepter in her hands that shook so hard she almost dropped it.

"Kristoff is already inside."

"Thank you Marshall," she said as they climbed out and Marshall led her to the door, already open and light streaming through from inside. She felt a gust of glorious warm air cover her the second she stepped over the doorframe.

"Your majesty," Kristoff said, walking up to her. God bless him, he'd clearly spent the whole time getting the place ready for her.

Maybe Marshall didn't think it was of any real concern but Elsa could see from the look in his eyes that Kristoff was going to ask the second that they were both secure in the house. Her oldest – and maybe only – friend followed her silently as she collapsed in a very unqueenly fashion onto the sofa in the living room.

Elsa took a deep breath and was suddenly very aware that she was still in the riding clothes that Anna had given her. Suddenly it was far too stuffy in there, and she felt the insane desire to just tear them off her body.

"Elsa, are you alrigh-"

"I just need to change," Elsa said quickly, and she knew she wasn't fooling him for a second as she moved past him as quickly as she could. "Which is…?" she asked, and went in the direction that Kristoff pointed.

Strangely, the bedroom reminded her of her parent's bedroom, back in the private quarters of the castle. Maybe bedrooms the world over were more or less the same. She stripped off the jacket and began to change as quickly as she could, wincing a few times in pain as her arms strained in ways she wasn't familiar with. Riding had seemed so easy and painless when she was up there on the horse, but now she was back on the ground it felt like she'd be aching for days. She focussed on the dull pain, trying to block out the _other_ ache that was running through her chest.

There was a small knock at the door. "Your majesty?" a voice came from the door.

"Yes Eva?" she asked.

"I've sorted everything out with the Summerfords. They apologized for tiring you out so soon. They said they looked forward to seeing you tomorrow, and asked if there was anything they could send over from the mansion."

 _Yes, there is one thing._ "No, everything's…everything's fine." She tugged at the buttons on the shirt but they stubbornly refused to come off. She tugged harder to try and dislodge them, all her intelligence focused laser-like on this silly shirt, and before she knew it there was a sound like ripping paper, and Elsa sat back on the bed as the borrowed cloth fluttered against her chest. She looked down as the small white buttons rolled around the floor, and without warning a single sob wrenched its way out of her mouth, so hard it felt like her heart was being tugged out of her body.

There was a small click of a door, and small footsteps. "Ma'am…" Elsa felt the bed shift under her as Eva sat down. She just kept staring down at her chest and the torn flap of cloth hanging there.

"I tore my shirt," she whispered.

"I'm sure it will be fine, we'll offer to replace it."

"Anna gave me this shirt."

There was a beat of silence before Eva spoke again.

"Your majesty, are you in love with miss Summerford?"

It felt like it wasn't her that made her turn. It felt like some invisible superhuman standing beside her grabbed her head and wrenched it sideways so that she was suddenly looking up at her press secretary, so fast it almost hurt. "What?"

Eva just sat there on the bed, staring at her as she talked. Elsa was absurdly reminded of talks with her mother, growing up back in Arendelle. Sometimes growing up it had felt like all the knowledge and experience that was being pushed into her was squeezing her from the inside, and sometimes she would come back home to the castle a nervous wreck. At bedtime her mother would come into her room and sit next to her on the bed, and Elsa would lean her head into her mother's chest and feel everything she couldn't contain inside herself flowed out gently from herjust melt away from her.

When Eva spoke it was without title or formality. "I've only known you since you took the throne your majesty, but I watched your coronation on television like most of the country. Everyone I watched it with said you looked majestic, like you were born to it. But I always thought you looked a little sad standing there on your own."

No, it hadn't been sadness. Well, some of it, maybe. It had been fear. Pure, absolute fear. During the entire ceremony there had been more than a few moments where Elsa had wondered; if she had a choice, any choice at all, would she still have done it?

"When I was hired on at the castle and we were introduced a few months later I remember thinking that sadness hadn't really left."

Eva's eyes weren't like Anna's eyes. Where Anna's eyes sparkled green in the sunlight and Elsa could have stared at them for hours, Eva's deep brown eyes stripped her down and saw right through her. She wanted to look away but in that moment of weakness she couldn't. Eva talked on.

"I wasn't there when you met her but I remember when you came back from the party at the Weselton manor. You and Gerda were talking about that ridiculous charlatan, but Kristoff didn't. Kristoff just talked about some American woman you met for a few minutes. He talked about how nice she had been – to you, not to him – and how it was the only bright spot in that whole night."

"Eva…"

"Then there was the phone-call from her, which was strange. Not strange she had the number but strange how you dropped everything to talk with her. Then the trip you arranged, one you'd put aside weeks ago. I know you hate opera but you re-arranged three cabinet-level meetings and a meeting at the UN to go."

She wanted to be angry but it just wasn't there. "Look, I'm not-"

"And Kristoff told me about the gifts." ( _Oh that rat_ , Elsa thought.) "Then this trip. A congresswoman isn't so important that they rate a private weekend. Meeting a senator isn't this important, even if he is related to the…problems…we're having with Weselton Corp. It was all for her, wasn't it?" Not a question. "At first I put it aside, especially after I had a little…misunderstanding…with Anna. And yourself, of course I read everything when you hired me and there was never a hint of it. But when you got back from the field today I saw how scared Anna was, and how you looked. I won't ask what happened but it wasn't a fight or a misunderstanding between friends. When you came back from that field you looked like someone afraid they were about to lose something incredibly precious to them."

"I was."

"Your majesty," Eva repeated, "Are you in love with miss Summerford?"

Elsa took a deep breath. Even then, when she finally said, the word, it came out as more of a squeak of air. Still, as she said it, it seemed to suck every molecule of air from her lungs and leave her breathless.

"Yes."

Eva raised an arm and flinched, hesitated. Elsa made the choice for her by leaning sideways, and then Eva was acting as a support for her queen, as she was meant to.

"I love her," Elsa whispered. _I love her I love her I love her._

She felt warmth over her skin and looked down to see Eva's hand covering her own. Against Elsa's own pale flesh the older woman's looked darker. "Your majesty," Eva whispered, and at that moment she was Elsa's mother. "You can't."

Elsa felt salt prick at the corners of her eyelids and hated herself. "I know."

She couldn't. She couldn't. Anna wasn't just a foreigner – kings and queens had married foreigners in the past, just look at the rest of Europe and their charming, borderline-incestuous royal lineages – she was a foreign government official. Never mind how many levels were between Anna and the President, Anna's job was the United States of America. It wasn't fraternizing with the enemy but it was…The consequences would be beyond disastrous. The conflict of interests alone…

There was no possible way. Elsa knew it. Anna had to know it. Even if…even if it was real-

_It is._

-even if it was real for them both, they would destroy each other if they tried.

"I know," she repeated quietly, as Eva held her hand in the dark. She looked back up into those dark eyes. "But I do." She wanted Anna back. She wanted to be around Anna again. She wanted to hear Anna speak and let that oh-so-gentle and kind voice lull her back into the security she had lost, somewhere years ago at her coronation. When she was with Anna it felt like her smile wasn't so forced and her hands didn't itch. _I can't see her again_ , she thought, and even just thinking it made the breath shudder out of her body like someone was running a cheese-grater across her lungs. It hurt to think it.

"It will be dangerous."

The words were like a life-raft tossed to a drowning victim, or a final safety rope thrown out to someone falling off a cliff. Even if her mind was wrapped around that horrible thought her ears still heard it and forced her to hear it before she sunk under the waves, or fell under the cliff. "What?" she asked.

Eva's free hand was rubbing at her lips. Elsa watched as the brown eyes squinted in concentration, and she was suddenly reminded how little she knew about her press secretary's life before she had been drawn into the royal family's orbit.

 _What misunderstanding?_ she thought, but Eva was speaking again.

"Maybe dangerous is too strong a word. But it won't be easy," she said, and Elsa smiled. She was the queen of a nation, soon to be an extremely rich nation, and Eva was both her subordinate and her subject, but right at that moment Elsa would have kissed the ground she walked on if Eva had asked.

"I know."

Eva smiled, that slow and slightly mischievous grin that was beautiful and yet also utterly opaque. "We can, however, start with something very easy."

"What?"

"Call Kristoff."

* * *

"I figured that out already."

The tall blonde looked from one woman to the other. It was only two minutes later. In two minutes Elsa had quickly planned out her little speech. Eva had torpedoed that plan in a half-second by just getting to the point immediately: Her majesty has fallen for the congresswoman.

"I thought you might have," Eva said, utterly unsurprised.

"What. What? _How?_ " Elsa asked.

Kristoff's face tried to go from annoyed to exasperated and got caught somewhere in the middle. He shrugged, palms up. The gesture looked distinctly American; _what are you gonna do_ _?_ "Everything you've done since you first met her, I guess? Err. You know what they say about love."

" _I_ don't know what they say," Elsa replied, just a little annoyed by the sheer…the sheer…the _normality_ Kristoff was showing. Like it wasn't even a little bit shocking!

That shrug again. Elsa really hoped he would stop doing it by the time they left. "They say it's obvious to everyone but the people who it's happening to." Kristoff looked down at his queen. "If you're sure-"

"I am," she said. Maybe she hadn't been even a few hours ago but she was sure now, surer than she had ever been in her life.

Kristoff looked from his queen to Eva, and back again. "So now what?"

"I really think that's up to her majesty."

Well, this was going to be quite a ridiculous conspiracy of three. Luckily Elsa knew what the next part was. It had been the only thing occupying her thoughts all night. "I need to clear things up with Anna," Elsa said. _I need to see her again. I need to know for sure._

Eva glanced at Kristoff, then back to her. "Your majesty, are you sure you're up for-"

Elsa crossed her arms and gave her press secretary the best imperious glance she had. Eva stopped talking immediately. " _Right now_."

The dark-haired woman smiled. "Yes ma'am."

* * *

The only sound left in the small house was the ticking of the clock, as Elsa sat on the – extremely comfortable, the Summerfords knew how to treat a guest well – sofa.

She had no idea what she was doing.

She knew exactly what she was doing.

She was taking the first real decision she had felt good about in years.

She was taking an insane risk that would destroy her authority and the career of a woman whose only crime was to be so kind, caring and beautiful that Elsa had fallen for her.

And _had_ she fallen for Anna? I mean really? She had never considered her own sexuality might fall any place other than the traditional one. Since taking the throne she had barely considered her sexuality at _all_. She'd had few friends growing up, few people she could open her heart to. Oh, god, what if she was making a gigantic mistake? What if this was just a huge reaction to the first person to really be a friend to Elsa in years? She realised she was rubbing her hands together through her gloves, and dropped them to her sides. _No._ She didn't need to drive herself insane with worry over that. Anna had kissed her. Anna had kissed _her_.

"I'm sorry."

Elsa left her internal monologue and looked over at Kristoff, standing at the door-frame that linked the living room (or was it called a sitting room? She forgot) and the foyer, with a line of sight to the front door. "What?" she asked.

"I could have said something."

 _Oh Kristoff._ Practically all her life he had been there for her. Always keeping her out of trouble, always trying to shoulder Elsa's burdens. Well, he couldn't shoulder this one, no matter how hard he tried. "What would you have said?" she asked with a smile.

He didn't look around at her as he spoke. Either because he was so attentive to his job (should a rabid mob of Arendelle republicans attack the house at this very moment, only he stood between Elsa and a very final violent abdication) or because he didn't want to look at her. When he spoke his voice sounded almost sad. "I don't know. Something."

When Elsa replied it was with every piece of warmth and sincerity she could put into her voice. "You were the best friend I could have hoped for growing up, Kristoff."

"Thanks Elsa. I-" he stopped talking, and Elsa watched as he tensed up.

"Who is it?" she asked, already knowing but wanting to ask anyway.

Kristoff's expression changed into a smile as he looked at her. "They're back," he said, and walked off to the front door.

Suddenly she felt hot, the palms of her hands under the gloves so itchy she could have ripped them off right there. But she couldn't, because Anna was here. She was here. She knew it without having to hear anything. She could see the lights of the small car outside flicker off and the faint sound of boots on gravel. She gulped air to get her breathing under control and stood, standing at the centre of the room. She felt nervous. She felt scared. She felt terrified. Surely even her coronation hadn't been this bad? She could hear voices, Kristoff's deeper tone saying something, and a woman replying.

_This is fine. This is what you want._

"Hello?"

It could have been any word. Just hearing the voice seemed to do something to her. To reach down into her chest and massage her hundred-beats-a-second heart until it relaxed to something approaching calm. Elsa took another deep breath and this time it came easily as she spoke: "Through here."

When Anna walked through the doorframe it almost undid the calming effect of her voice. She had clearly dressed quickly, in jeans that had seen better days and a shirt with its sleeves either rolled up or cut off, and a leather jacket that was faded and patched like it had been driven over by a herd of cattle. She didn't have any makeup on and her freckles shone across her skin, her barely-controlled hair flowing behind her in a single ponytail as a few strands lay over her face.

She looked gorgeous.

"Elsa I-" Anna started, but Elsa was faster.

"Please just let me talk," she said, both to Anna and to herself. She wasn't going to stop now. Nothing was going to stop her now. She stepped forward until there was barely a hands-breadth between them.

"Elsa, I-" Anna tried again, but Elsa's words flowed out of her like a torrent.

"What you said made me feel happier than I've felt in a very long time," Elsa said, leaning forwards the same way Anna had back by the river. Anna flinched backwards, just for a moment, but that moment scared Elsa hard enough that she kept going.

"I don't understand," Anna asked, those amazing green eyes wide. Elsa could have looked at them for years.

Elsa took a deep breath and asked, the question she was dying to ask, a question that she felt might kill her. She had her hands clasped over her chest, and the small snowflake pendant – Anna's snowflake pendant – laying there. "Did you mean it?"

"I couldn't stop thinking about you," Anna said, so close that her breath seemed to carry the words to Elsa where they flowed across her face, and just hearing them felt good and right. She felt euphoric. _Thank god. Thank god._

"I wasn't upset," Elsa said. Amazed. Ecstatic. Never upset.

And before she or Kristoff or their countries or anything else could possibly come between her and this amazing, beautiful creature who had walked into her life and changed it so much, Elsa leaned forward and kissed Anna.

* * *

She didn't dare move. Like she was in a dream and if she tried to think about it too hard her own mind would boot her back up into a terrible cold reality.

Because she was in a dream. That was the only possible explanation for the last few months, since she had met a captivating redhead and started the long slide down the slope to this moment, with Anna's hands linked with hers, and Anna's lips touching her in a way she couldn't describe.

She had closed her eyes because it felt like it she kept them open the heat between them would melt them in their sockets. She hesitated for just a second before the warmth of Anna's breath drove away the last cobwebs of worry from her mind and then her lips parted and she could feel Anna's tongue brushing against her own.

She felt Anna's hands twist and leave her own and was about to withdraw to complain; _no, wait, don't stop_ , but a second later she felt them again on the hair against her neck and the small of her back. Anna's arms were wrapped around her and suddenly she just felt safe. She felt safe and warm and content in a way she hadn't in years. She felt her muscles unravelling and the constant low-level hum of the stress that was her life leave her for what felt like the first time since the crown had touched her head.

She drew back, her hands held gently on Anna's sides, and looked directly into those amazing green eyes as she said the words. They came smoothly, naturally, like they had simply been waiting to be let out since that first evening at the Weselton party:

"I love you."

She watched Anna. Watched Anna's eyes widen like saucers until it felt like emerald searchlights were beaming directly at her. Watched her skin redden and blush through her freckles. Watched the edges of her lips turn up. Yes, she thought, as Anna opened her mouth. In that second it was like the heavens granted her foresight, and she knew what was coming next, and her heart soared as Anna replied:

"I love you too."

That was when Elsa broke down crying.

* * *

She sat on the couch, wiping the tears from her eyes.

No, try again: She sat on the couch next to Anna. Not across from each other at a minutes-long meeting or kept at arm's-length by diplomatic protocol or levels of state importance. Elsa sat next to Anna, leaning against her ever so slightly so that their sides touched. Anna had an arm around her back, and Elsa could feel the gentle motion of her fingers as the redhead played with her own platinum hair.

For minutes they didn't say anything, neither one of them wanting to break this…whatever this was. This moment they both knew couldn't last. Eventually one of them would speak and reality would crash against them and they would be Queen and Congresswoman again, but for these few precious moments Elsa and Anna could pretend they weren't. Both of them wanted as many of those moments as they could get.

In the end, almost five minutes later, it was Anna who spoke.

"Are…are you sure?" the American asked quietly, her fingers making little circling motions around Elsa's hair, around and around, around and around. Nervousness radiated from her. From them both.

"Yes," she replied.

"Since… since when?" Anna asked. "Did you…I mean…was I…"

Elsa looked out of the window. Between the pitch-black night outside and the dimmed light inside she could see the stars dotting the sky with tiny pinpricks of white. The light was just bright enough to cast a faint reflection of them on the glass, and Elsa could look at the window and see ghosts of herself and Anna there on the window, surrounded by a nimbus of stars. Her free hand that wasn't held in Anna's went up to the snowflake pendant. "Since the first phone-call, I think," she said, staring at her reflection and wWatching Anna's hand as it trailed through Elsa's hair, every movement sending a shiver of electricity into Elsa's scalp.

"We'd only met once before," Anna said in surprise. "At the manor party, for a few minutes!"

Elsa leaned sideways just a little more, and Anna rested her cheek against the crook of Elsa's neck and shoulder, a little bundle of warmth flowing across the skin there. "I was…" She tried to find the words. _Talking with you was like moving through a dream and whenever you weren't there it was like waking up again. When I was with you it was like standing next to a fire and the world seemed darker and colder when you left._ "When you left that night I didn't realise it. But then you called and I just…" Why were words so hard to find when she needed them? "When you called I realized how much I missed you." Elsa whettedwet her lips. "And…you?"

"Probably when I saw you at the opera, in the dress," Anna replied, closing her eyes as Elsa fingered the pendant around her neck, the beautiful gift that she just couldn't seem to keep her hands from when she wore it. "You were so beautiful, and you were…"

Elsa remembered the night with crystal clarity. "I was so happy to see you again."

"I think maybe I knew when I gave you that." Anna's free hand drifted from playing with Elsa's hair to rub across the pendant, and Elsa's breath hitched in her throat as warm fingers played around just millimeters from her skin. "Making you…you looked so happy, and it made me happy seeing that."

She didn't know what else to say. The door to the room was shut and Elsa looked it and saw beyond it all the huge problems this was going to bring. Even though all she wanted to do was just…just switch off and enjoy this perfect night that had somehow coalesced out of nothing, her traitorous mind wouldn't let her. The analytical part that she had drilled into total obedience as a queen was still doing its job far too well and was now looking at her over horn-rimmed glasses and asking her if she remembered what the words constitutional crisis meant and if she remembered who Edward VIII had been.

Elsa sank a little deeper into the coszy and oh-so-warm sofa and slammed the door on Administrator Elsa. God, just let her have one night like this. She leaned back into Anna, closed her eyes and just…breathed her in. Felt the slight rise and fall of Anna's body against her own as she looked out the window. For the first time in so long she just felt utterly at peace.

"This is nice," Anna whispered. "It's really nice."

"It is," Elsa said with a smile. "It really is."

"But now what?" Anna asked.

And there it was. Oh, god. More heartbeats slipped past them

"We could…" Elsa watched as Anna took a deep breath and started to say: "We could forget we ever-"

"No," Elsa said, the words leaving her mouth before her brain had even fully digested what Anna had been about to say. The part of her thinking _maybe that would be for the best_ was instantly shoved aside and replaced with a small tiny child she remembered from a long time ago. She twisted so that it was now her that was leaning into Anna, staring her in the face. "I wouldn't," she said, desperation slipping through the mask that had gradually dissolved inch by inch the more time she spent around her. _I can't_ , she acknowledged to herself at the same time, as she looked slightly down at the green-eyed freckled woman. Because she was captured, totally, utterly. For the first time in so long she had something, and it would have to be torn from her.

Anna smiled and it was gorgeous, innocent, so free. Just looking at it Elsa knew she had never stood a chance of resisting her, this incredible woman who had just…sauntered into her life and made Elsa care about so little else.

"We can't tell anyone," Anna whispered, and Elsa knew what she was thinking when her eyes flitted to the windows. _Not even my parents._

"No," Elsa acknowledged just as sadly. "It'll be…difficult."

Anna twisted her head up towards Elsa. "I don't care. Do you?" she asked, defiantly, and again Elsa saw that she was being given a second chance, a second out.

She ignored it. "No." Her eyes felt heavy, and it wasn't just the spell that Anna was casting over her. "We should talk. Tomorrow." On Sunday that…objectionable…man was coming to talk to her. One day with Anna wouldn't be enough – wouldn't be nearly enough – but for now it was all she wanted.

"Tomorrow, that…that's a good idea. That's a great idea," Anna said, clearly holding herself awake by the skin of her teeth. Slowly the American shifted, untangling her arm from behind Elsa's back and rubbing some life back into it as Elsa blushed (she hadn't thought about whether _Anna_ was comfortable, how careless and selfish of her). She watched as Anna strode over to the door and opened it. At that moment Elsa half-expected…something. Maybe a black tide of woe and trouble sweeping through and drowning them both would have been a little dramatic. But she couldn't deny that the second the brass doorknob turned she felt that inner peace she had oh-so-recently found slip away just a little bit.

It didn't of courseNothing happened, of course. All that happened was that Anna took a step out – looking back at Elsa for just a second, as if she was going to suddenly change her mind and vanish – and then turned back and said: "Kristoff?"

Anna smiled back at her as the tall blonde appeared and stood next to her, practically towering over the redhead. "Congresswoman?"

"Thank you for the lovely evening," Anna said, without taking her eyes from Elsa. "Kristoff, could you take me home please?"

Kristoff blinked and looked from one woman to the other. "You're not staying?" he asked, clearly before his brain could stop his mouth.

"Kristoff!" Anna and Elsa both shouted in shock.

"Ohgodi'msorryIdidn'tmean…"

"Goodnight Anna," Elsa said, as Kristoff stepped aside and gestured to the front door, ducking his head to hide his dumb blush.

"Night Elsa," Anna replied, and turned away. Elsa resisted the urge to stand and run and kiss her goodbye like she was some soldier's wife waving off her husband. Instead she just closed her eyes and listened to Anna's footsteps recede, and the wooden knock of the door closing. She waited a few seconds, just…basking.

She waited a second. Then another second. Maybe she was testing herself to see if now was the point where she would wake up. Because this had been an impossible night. She felt…warm. Like a small part of Anna hadn't left with the rest of her and was still right here with her. She curled up on the sofa in the ball as if she could wrap herself around it, and smiled.

A knock at the doorframe. "Ma'am?" It was Eva.

Elsa quickly straightened herself up, adjusting her dress and sitting back on the sofa like a normal person, rather than the love-struck teenager that she felt-like.

 _She loves me_. Just thinking the words made her feel…

She hadn't felt like this in so long.

Had she felt like this, ever?

When she had thought that somebody would have to tear this feeling from her to make her stop, she had meant it.

"Your majesty?"

Eva stood there in the doorway watching her. Elsa stood and walked towards her, and without pausing wrapped her arms around Eva. "Thank you."

"For what ma'am?" Eva asked, still as stone.

Elsa smiled. "For courage." She let go and stepped past Eva, headed to the bedroom. "Please tell the Summerfords I look forward to seeing more of their hospitality tomorrow morning."

"Yes ma'am."

Elsa shut the door behind her and let out a contented sigh. She put a hand against her neck and imagined she could still feel little traces of heat from where Anna had been leaning up against it.

She had no idea how she was going to sleep tonight.

* * *

She had no idea how she was going to sleep tonight.

Anna leaned against the side of the jeep, one arm hanging out into the night, staring up into the heavens with an expression on her face that might have caused Kristoff some worry if they hadn't been the only moving vehicle for miles around.

_I love you. I love you._

Coming back to the family ranch after so long away always made her remember the thing she loved most about Texas: She could look up and see the stars anytime she wanted. Back in Washington the fog of a million people and the light of a hundred thousand streetlights sat over the city like a huge slate-grey sheet, blocking it all out. But back here, where there was nothing around them for miles and miles, she could tilt her head back and stare into the universe, like the whole thing was a light-show arranged just for her.

_I love you. I love you._

And surely that was the case? After a night like tonight how could she _not_ think that the entire world was set around her just to make her happy? When she had kissed Elsa by the stream she had felt the entire world fall apart around her, and somehow in just a few hours, it had built itself back up out of nothing. Better than built back up _-_ it had been _re_ built, with a fresh coat of paint and a new coat of polish. She lifted an arm up and imagined that she was dipping her hand into the stars above, the wind flowing over them the refreshing wind that carried them. She laughed to herself, not caring if Kristoff thought she was a weirdo.

"Someone's happy."

"Hmm?" She drew her hand back down and put her head back into the jeep. "I am. I am!" she said, still laughing.

Then a second later she remembered that she was so happy because she had just confessed her love to a woman she had barely met, and that the man sitting across from her in the driver's seat had known her his whole life. _Oh, God, what if he-_ "Kristoff-" she started, but he talked over her, and his words cut off whatever half-formed question she had been thinking of.

"Thank you Anna."

Okay, well, of all the things she might have expected, _that_ certainly hadn't been anywhere near the top of the list. "For what?" she asked, watching him closely as he drove, never taking his eyes off the dirt road ahead of them. His arms on the steering wheel looked like tree-trunks. Maybe it was a ruse to lower her guard and then he'd reach across and strangle her as he drove.

"For tonight, and-"

"For kissing your queen?"

"Hey, let me finish."

"Sorry."

Kristoff gave a lopsided smile and a shake of his head. "She's been…happier. Since she met you."

Anna remembered the first time she had met Elsa, back at the party. A lone woman in a beautiful dress, far from the lights and noise, looking out over the water.

"It's a pretty big burden."

Take her own job, hustling for a single state out of fifty. Scale it up to a whole country. "I can imagine."

"Yeah." Kristoff paused for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, I guess you can."

Anna adjusted herself on the uncomfortable cloth seat. "Does she talk about it?"

"Sometimes, but at the end of the day we're still just subjects, you know."

"She thinks a lot more of you than that," Anna said forcefully.

"Maybe, but she's still up there on her own. She puts out a strong face but sometimes I can tell." He risked a quick glance at her. "Since you just blundered into the picture-"

"Hey!"

"- _blundered into the picture,_ it's been better. Now I guess I know why."

She blushed. "Sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry for." Kristoff licked his lips, like he was unsure he should go on. "She needs- she deserves it," he settled on eventually, as the wind blew through the jeep, and Anna knew there was something he wasn't saying. But ther euphoria bubbling inside her told her to let it lie for now.

After all, she could just ask Elsa the next time they met, tomorrow. _Tomorrow._ Not after weeks of waiting and contacts between countries, or having to call in favours from bigger fish. Tomorrow morning she would just wake up and Elsa would be _right here._ She smiled as she saw the lights of the house approach, climbing out almost before the jeep had come to a stop.

"Marshall," she nodded to the huge slab that stepped past her to take her place. The man glanced back at her with a puzzled expression on his face as she rushed past him, but she was already inside. With a shrug he turned to Kristoff and nodded, and the two drove off back to their queen.

The light was still on in the kitchen, her mother there humming a tune under her breath. She looked up as her daughter almost _ran_ past the doorway. "Was everything alright dear?" her mother asked. "That nice young woman seemed quite insistent on talking to you."

Anna smiled. "Everything's fine mom," she said as she rushed upstairs to change, like a kid on Christmas Eve.

"We're putting on a big breakfast tomorrow for our guests!" her mother called up after her. "Make sure you're decent for it!"

"I will be!"

" _And awake!"_

"I _will be!_ " Anna said, with a laugh. Nothing on Earth would keep her from it. Not interfering senators or blockheaded bodyguards. Not the President himself could manage it.

She had _no_ idea how she was going to sleep tonight.

**Author's Note:**

> Heya. This is a re-post from FFnet, on the worry that the FFnet version may get taken down.


End file.
